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IMFROVED  COURSE 
OF  STUDY 


DAVISON 


the:     possibility     or     an      improved 

COURSE     or    STUDY     FOR     THE     IN- 
TELLIGENT    CHILDREN     OF 
CULTURED    PARENTS 


GEORGE:     MILLARD     DAVISON,     A.B. 


SUBMITTED    IN    PARTIAL    FULFILLMENT  OF  THE   REQUIRE- 
MENTS FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 
INtTHE     GRADUATE    SCHOOL    OF    NEW    YORK 
UNIVERSITY 


JUNE,    1911 


THE,       POSSIBILITY       OF       AN       IMPROVED 

COURSE    OF    STUDY     FOR     THE     IN= 

TELLIGE^NT     CHILDREN     OF 

CULTURED   PARE^NTS 

GEORGE   MILLARD   DAVISON   Principal,   Public   School    155. 
Borough   of   Brooklyn,  New   YorK 

TABLE   OF   CONTENTS  PAGE 

Foreword    4 

Statement  of   Purpose    4 

Present  Methods    5 

Criticism  of  Our  Present  A^thods lo 

Opinion  of  President  Charles  F.  Thwing I2 

Early  Education  of  John  Stuart  Mill    •  • 13 

Features  in  the  Education  of  F.  A.  P.  Barnard 13 

Plan  Followed  by  Henry  Winthrop  Hardon  with  His  Son 14 

Method  Followed  with  a  New  Jersey  Girl 14 

Plan  of  Dr.  Levi  Clark  of  Dartmouth,  N.  H 15 

Plan  Followed  with  a   Brooklyn   Child 15 

Plan  Followed  by  Mrs.  William  E.  Thayer  of  Weymouth,  Mass 19 

Work  Done  by  Dr.   Mary  Putnam-Jacobi •  • 21 

Dr.  John  Dewey's  Chicago  School 26 

Special  Plan  of  Promotions  in  Santa  Barbara,  Cal 27 

Special  Promotions  in  a  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  Public  School 28 

A  Boston  Experiment  in  Education 29 

Public  School  Efforts  at  Solution 41 

The  Group  System 42 

Critique        47, 

Cautions    ^8 

General  View  of  a  Course  of  Study c;  r 

Reading  and  Literature    C2 

Composition    r^ 

Grammar c-j 

History    • r^ 

Nature   and    Science ca 

Drawing c  c 

Manual  Training   c6 

Physical  Culture eg 

iVrithmetic eg 

Geography 5q 

Music gQ 

Religious   Training gj 

Age  at  Which  the  Various  Studies  Should  Be  Commenced 61 

Appendix  of  Special  Sources 5^ 

Appendix  Showing  Type  Story 53 

Bibliography    ^, 

Copyright  by  George  M.  Davison,  December,  1010. 


4  ■  •  -SC^HOOL    WORK 

*'  '  ' "''     Part  I. 

The  need  for  such  a  course  is  evident  in  any  class  where  the  bright  pupils 
seize  quickly  the  teacher's  explanations  and  sit  waiting  for  the  others  to 
catch  up. 

The  present  courses  are  made  for  the  multitude,  not  for  the  few  whose 
circumstances  are  such  that  they  learn  much  unconsciously  at  home  with  their 
parents  and  associates. 

Part  II. 
Experiments  showing  that  the  work  can  profitably  be  done  in  less  time 
than  is  commonly  demanded. 

(a)  John  Stuart  Mill's  early  education. 

(b)  Other  attempts  by  parents. 

(c)  A  private  school  in  Boston. 

(d)  Special  plans  for  rapid  promotions. 

Part  III. 
A  suggested  course  of  study. 

Foreword 

When  the  time  comes  for  thoughtful  parents  to  begin  the  education  of 
their  oldest  child,  they  are  apt  to  scrutinize  closely  the  neighboring  schools. 
A  careful  survey  is  not  altogether  reassuring.  In  the  public  schools  (and 
the  private  schools  are  but  little,  if  any,  better)  hardly  one  child  in  four 
graduates.  Of  this  remnant,  only  about  20%  complete  their  preparation  for 
college.  Many  children  who  enter  full  of  enthusiasm  lose  this  keen  zest,  and 
find  school  a  place  of  weariness.  These  facts  appall  those  who  regard  the 
little  ones  as  their  most  priceless  treasures.  They  feel  that  the  best  is  none 
too  good  for  their  children.  Some  of  them  search  for  improved  methods. 
"Can  we  not  improve,"  they  say,  "upon  the  plan  of  education  handed  down 
to  us?  Must  all  children  be  put  into  classes  and  be  taught  the  same  things 
in  the  same  way  at  the  same  time  regardless  of  the  personality  of  the  pupil 
or  of  his  especial  aptitudes  and  needs?  Is  there  not  some  plan  by  which  we 
can  preserve  and  nourish  the  ardent  desire  to  learn,  which  we  have  watched 
and  studied  in  our  offspring?  Shall  we  not  foster  this  by  securing  special 
instructors  who  arc  expert  teachers?  There  must  be  a  better  way  than  any 
laid  down  in  the  books,  and  it  is  our  business  to  look  for  it.  Perhaps,  others 
will  carry  forward  our  work." 

The  following  pages  are  an  alttnipt  in  this  direction.  The  first  contain 
accounts  of  our  present  system  and  criticisms  made  by  men  and  women  who 
have  i)ractical  knowledge  on  which  to  base  their  statements.  The  next  give 
in  some  detail  descriptions  of  altcnipts  to  educate  individuals  rather  than 
masses.  These  are  followed  by  a  course  of  study  intended  to  be  suggestive. 
Some  of  the  material  is  old  and  familiar,  but  some  of  it  is  entirely  new,  and 
the  whole  is  offered  as  a  contribution  to  the  solution  of  the  problem  in  hand. 

Pestalozzi  tried  to  interest  Napoleon  in  his  system  of  education.  The 
Corsican's  only  reply  was  that  he  had  no  time  to  waste  on   schoolmasters. 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  5 

Within  a  century,  Bismarck,  whose  people  had  followed  up  zealously  the  great 
Swiss  educator's  plans,  watched  the  German  armies  complete  their  lines  about 
the  French  at  Sedan.  When  the  last  division  was  in  position,  and  the  sur- 
render of  the  Gauls  was  but  a  few  hours  away,  congratulations  were  showered 
upon  the  German  leader.  His  only  reply  was  "Pestalozzi  did  it."  The  proof 
that  education  gives  a  nation  strength  in  war  as  well  as  honors  in  peace  was 
complete  and  the  Iron  Chancellor  was  the  first  to  admit  it. 

America  since  her  earliest  days  has  fostered  the  common  school,  and  the 
opportunities  for  universal  education  offered  in  this  country  are  without  a 
parallel.  The  native  born  child  looks  forward  to  his  first  school  days.  The 
kindergarten  in  almost  all  cities  and  towns  is  ready  to  receive  him  at  the  age 
of  five  years  or  younger.  At  six  he  is  taught  to  read.  This  process  requires 
several  months,  even  a  term  being  insufficient  to  give  the  pupil  the  ability  to 
perform  alone  or  with  strange  books.  For  four  years  the  struggle  is  kept 
up,  and  it  is  not  till  the  child  reaches  the  fifth  year  of  his  school  life  that 
he  is  considered  at  all  able  to  read  his  arithmetic  examples  instead  of  having 
them  doled  out  by  the  teacher.  More  rapid  progress  is  made  from  this  time 
on  and  reading  merely  as  a  technical  exercise  in  rendition  gives  way  to  critical 
reading  in  which  the  story  of  a  few  masterpieces  in  English  is  gained  from 
the  study  of  the  original  text ;  and  in  addition  the  child  is  taught  some  very 
elementary  literary  criticism,  so  that  he  can  select  a  few  of  the  more  common 
figures  of  speech,  the  telling  passages,  and  the  climaxes.  This  same  work  in 
more  intensive  form  is  carried  through  the  high  school,  and,  when  our  boy 
reaches  college,  he  has  some  little  acquaintance  with  English  and  American 
authors  that  the  boy  of  twenty-five  years  ago  did  not  receive  even  in  college 
unless  innate  literary  taste  or  environment  gave  it  to  him. 

From  his  earliest  days  in  school,  he  has  opportunity  to  give  oral  expres- 
sion to  his  thoughts,  and,  when  he  has  learned  to  write,  he  has  the  chance 
to  supplement  his  oral  statements  with  written  ones.  The  untended  waif  who 
wails  because  he  "hain't  got  no  book"  or  because  some  comrade  "borrowed 
a  pencil  ofifen  on  him"  is  given  training  which,  in  spite  of  the  nineteen  hours 
spent  out  of  school  for  about  two-thirds  of  each  year  and  twenty-four  the 
other  third,  really  improves  his  language  to  a  considerable  degree.  In  the 
second  year,  he  is  encouraged  to  tell  about  his  pets  or  his  toys.  A  little 
later,  stories  are  told  him  and  he  is  expected  to  help  reproduce  them  to  the 
teacher.  Fairy  stories  and  the  simplest  fables  are  the  material  chosen.  In 
the  third  year,  he  is  drilled  on  the  use  of  the  various  forms  or  "parts"  of  the 
irregular  verbs  such  as  "is,"  "go,"  "do,"  "lie,"  and  others.  A  little  later  he 
is  required  to  copy  model  letters  and  stanzas  both  from  written  copies  and 
from  dictation.  Model  compositions  of  about  a  hundred  words  are  then 
studied  and  imitated.  Thus  by  easy  stages  the  child  is  carried  along  till  at 
the  end  of  his  course  he  is  able  to  write  a  fair  account  of  the  school  flower 
show,  the  athletic  meet,  the  comet,  or  any  other  subject  that  may  be  given 
him. 

After  the  pupil  has  finished  the  kindergarten  and  one  year  at  school,  he 
begins  formal  spelling.  As  the  spelling  reforms  are  not  yet  agreed  upon, 
the  problem  of  spelling  is  not  an  easy  one.     By  earnest  attention  and  unceas- 


6  SCHOOL    WORK 

ing  toil  with  the  laggards,  the  teachers  are  able  to  drill  the  average  classes  so 
that  they  can  spell  correctly  a  list  of  common  words  that  would  surprise  one. 
Memorization  of  carefully  chosen  selections  is  carried  along  similarly,  and  the 
pupils  are  also  taught  penmanship,  with  the  result  that  many  of  them  develop 
style  and  character  in  that  difficult  art. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  the  course  of  study,  the  child  is  taught  to 
count.  The  first  term  after  the  kindergarten  sees  the  first  of  the  addition 
tables  covered  and  these  are  finished  the  second  term.  There  are  45  combina- 
tions of 'single  digits  in  addition.  Some  of  these,  like  2  +  i,  8  +  8,  and  so 
forth  are  comparatively  easy.  The  harder  ones  are  separated  for  the  heavy 
drill,  and  in  this  way  the  tables  are  thoroughly  memorized.  In  similarly 
graded  fashion,  the  multiplication  tables  are  presented,  while  applied  mathe- 
matics like  telling  time  by  the  clock  and  the  ordinary  measures  of  volume 
are  kept  along  with  the  abstract  work.  Fractions  are  taken  up  in  the  first 
year  when  the  children  are  asked  to  divide  the  edge  of  their  papers  into 
halves,  thirds  and  fourths.  Later,  when  the  elementary  knowledge  of  frac- 
tions is  thoroughly  digested,  the  common  forms  are  taught,  and  the  work  is 
pushed  forward  to  completion.  The  denominate  number  tables  are  learned 
little  by  little,  and  constant  reviews  hold  the  child's  attention.  By  carefully 
graded  steps  and  systematic  reviews,  the  pupil  is  taken  over  the  work  in  deci- 
mals, percentage,  interest,  mensuration  and  other  topics  which  are  considered 
desirable  for  a  well  regulated  elementary  school  course.  In  the  best  schools, 
notably  the  public  schools  of  New  York  City,  the  last  half  year  of  the  elemen- 
tary course  is  spent  in  a  searching  review  of  all  the  arithmetic  covered  in  the 
course.  This  review  serves  the  twofold  purpose  of  bringing  out  any  weakness 
or  omission  in  the  child's  work,  and  it  also  brings  into  the  center  of  conscious- 
ness those  topics  connected  with  business  arithmetic  which  he  may  wish  to  use 
at  once  after  leaving  school. 

Geography  begins  in  the  fourth  year.  The  first  work  is  to  impart  some 
elementary  notions  of  locality,  direction  and  geographical  forms.  The  chief 
streets  of  the  neighborhood  are  taught,  the  boroughs  or  wards  of  small  cities 
are  outlined  and  so-called  home  geography  is  given.  From  this  the  child  is 
taken  over  form  and  surface  of  the  earth  and  is  drilled  on  the  grand  divisions 
of  land  and  water,  including  the  largest  islands  and  gulfs.  The  same  year, 
elementary  astronomical  geography  of  the  simplest  form  is  brought  in.  Man 
as  the  inhaljitant  of  the  earth  is  introduced  through  his  city  homes  and  through 
his  food  of  plants  and  animals.  The  second  year  the  continent  of  Xortli  Am- 
erica is  studied  somewhat  in  detail,  attention  being  jiaid  to  its  coast  line,  drain- 
age, surface,  extent,  boundaries  and  location.  The  size  is  taken  as  a  standard 
of  comparison  in  dealing  with  other  continents.  The  industries  included  in 
manufacturing,  mining  and  agriculture  are  explained  and  taught  by  visits  to 
places  where  they  can  be  seen,  or  pictures  are  used  for  this  purpose,  both  in 
stereoscopes  and  in  books  or  clippings,  and  by  the  help  of  projection  lanterns. 
After  this  work  is  done,  the  various  groups  of  states  in  the  Union  are 
presented  somewhat  in  detail,  New  York  State  and  New  York  City  being  again 
made  the  standard  of  comparison  for  states  and  cities  respectively.  From 
the  United  States,  the  student  goes  to  the  other  countries  of  North  America, 
and  afterward  to  South  America.     In  the  second  half  of  the  sixth  vear  of 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OP  STUDY  7 

school,  the  child  is  introduced  to  the  study  of  Europe.  It  and  the  other  con- 
tinents in  turn  are  treated  as  North  America  was,  but  in  less  detail.  Attention 
is  called  to  the  location  of  places  connected  with  important  current  events. 
All  through  the  first  term,  free  hand  outline  maps  are  drawn,  the  aim  being 
to  get  the  child  to  draw  a  recognizable  outline  map  of  any  country  with  some 
geographical  detail  of  locality  added.  A  complete  map  must  be  drawn  in 
less  than  five  minutes  and  embellishment  is  not  encouraged.  The  course  is 
closed  in  the  eighth  year  with  a  review  of  physical  and  commercial  geography, 
showing  the  leading  trade  routes  and  the  commodities  that  are  largely  dealt  in 
by  the  various  nations. 

Formal  history  is  begun  in  the  fifth  year.  From  the  first,  however,  the 
child's  mind  has  been  fed  with  stories  presenting  in  attractive  form  important 
incidents  in  the  lives  of  great  men  and  women  who  have  molded  nations. 
In  the  fifth  year,  there  are  presented  more  extended  biographical  and  histor- 
ical narratives  bringing  in  discoverers,  explorers,  and  adventurers.  The  early 
inhabitants  of  North  America  are  also  studied  briefly.  These  are  followed 
with  similar  narratives  relative  to  the  Colonial  period,  including  persons, 
events,  and  Colonial  life.  These  are  embellished  with  stories  of  New  York 
under  the  Dutch  or  New  Orleans  under  the  French,  or  the  early  rule  of  the 
city  in  which  the  child  lives.  Visits  to  historical  places,  buildings,  and  monu- 
mefits  are  also  employed  wherever  possible.  The  Colonial  period  is  brought 
to  a  close  and  in  the  sixth  year  the  leading  events  and  great  men  down  to 
the  present  time  are  brought  forward  in  the  same  narrative  style.  The  aim 
of  the  wise  teacher  in  these  two  years  of  work  is  not  so  much  to  impart  a 
detailed  knowledge  of  the  period  as  it  is  to  introduce  the  child  to  the  subject 
of  history  and  rouse  his  interest  in  it.  In  actual  practice,  however,  most 
teachers  are  so  desirous  of  having  their  children  know  the  course  of  study 
that  they  drill  on  facts  and  figures  till  interest  is  dead  and  the  child  is  filled 
with  a  dislike  for  history  that  seldom  leaves  him. 

In  most  schools  a  more  intensive  study  of  United  States  history  is  pur- 
sued in  the  last  two  years  of  the  course.  As  a  preparation  for  this,  a  course 
is  given  in  English  history  with  the  aim  of  showing  the  student  the  origin  of 
our  American  institutions  in  the  development  of  the  democratic  idea  on 
English  soil.  Along  with  this  is  carried  the  study  of  the  dominant  part  played 
by  England  in  exploring  and  settling  this  country.  An  exhaustive  study  of 
English  history  is  naturally  not  attempted,  but  as  an  introduction  to  American 
history  the  study  is  found  valuable. 

Historical  studies  for  boys  and  girls  have  been  devided  by  ]\Iace  into 
Sense,  Representative,  and  Reflective  stages  or  phases.  The  Sense  phase  is 
the  one  in  which  the  narrative  makes  action  dominant.  The  Representaative 
phase  is  the  one  in  which  the  imagination  of  the  child  is  developed  sufficiently 
to  picture  to  himself  in  detail  the  historical  knowledge  gained  in  the  Sense 
phase.  The  Reflective  phase  is  that  of  the  scholar  who  traces  causes  and 
effects.  The  second  or  Representative  phase  is  appropriate  to  the  age  of 
children  in  the  eighth  year  of  the  grammar  school,  and  it  is  here  that  the 
American  history  of  that  year  belongs.  The  Sense  phases  of  years  five  and 
'six  have  supplied  much  material  and  this  is  worked  over,  details  added,  a 
beginning  made  in  studying  causes  and  in  classifying  phenomena,  and  the  child 


8  SCHOOL    IVORK 

goes  out  with  a  little  idea  of  what  history  is,  and  if  his  teacher  has  been  wise 
and  competent,  he  has  a  fondness  for  it. 

Along  with  the  study  of  history  is  carried  the  study  of  civics.  In  fact,  it 
begins  before  history  does,  where,  in  connection  with  local  geography,  the 
duties  of  some  minor  public  officials  are  taught.  In  the  earlier  years,  the 
duties  of  citizens,  the  nature  and  purpose  of  public  institutions,  and  ethical 
lessons  are  given.  From  this  beginning,  the  departments  of  city  and  state 
governments  are  explained  with  their  functions  and  the  laws  controlling  them. 
These  lessons  are  followed  with  an  explanation  of  the  national  government, 
methods  of  nominating  and  electing  officers,  the  different  branches  of  the  gov- 
ernment, and  the  relation  of  the  state  and  national  constitutions  to  the  laws. 
The  plan  is  to  give  the  children  a  working  knowledge  of  the  social  organi- 
zation of  which  they  are  a  part,  and  also  to  teach  them  to  respect  this  organi- 
zation because  of  their  knowledge  of  the  ethical  laws  upon  which  it  is  based. 
The  things  which  the  American  citizen  is  expected  to  know  and  to  do  in  the 
exercise  of  his  civic  rights  and  in  the  discharge  of  his  civic  duties  are  in- 
cluded here. 

In  addition  to  the  work  above  described,  the  pupil  is  taken  through  care- 
ful courses  in  nature,  physical  training,  hygiene,  cooking,  carpentry,  sewing, 
drawing,  and  music.  These  things  sometimes  seem  less  needful  than  the  other 
subjects  which  have  a  plainer  connection  with  the  child's  educational  environ- 
ment, but  the  motto,  "mens  sana  in  corpore  sano,"  has  been  the  guide,  not, 
however,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  aesthetic  and  artistic  sides  of  education.  It 
is  sometimes  argued  that  the  time  thus  given  detracts  from  the  thoroughness 
of  the  work  done  in  arithmetic  and  English.  The  validity  of  this  argument  is 
stoutly  attacked  and  may  well  be  questioned. 

Much  is  involved  in  a  school  besides  teaching  the  subjects  discussed  in  the 
foregoing  pages.  A  building  on  a  suitable  location  must  be  provided.  It  must 
l3e  equipped  with  properly  lighted  rooms  having  exits  leading  through  wide 
corridors  into  the  yards  and  the  street.  The  building  must  have  a  good 
heating  plant  and  a  system  of  artificial  lighting  so  that  on  cold,  dark  days  it 
may  be  kept  habitable.  The  stairs  and  the  floors,  which  are  subject  to  un- 
usual wear  from  the  daily  use  of  thousands  of  feet,  must  be  fireproof  and  of 
some  more  durable  material  than  wood.  The  rooms  must  be  so  arranged 
that  the  pupils  shall  receive  light  at  their  desks  only  from  behind  or  over  the 
left  side.  Each  room  must  have  its  complement  of  blackboards,  wardrobes, 
desks,  cabinets  for  the  teacher's  supplies  and  surplus  books,  and  all  the  stock 
of  a  well  provisioned  class  room.  There  must  be  adequate  sanitary  accommo- 
dations for  both  teachers  and  pupils,  and  a  system  of  electric  signals  by  which 
communication  may  be  maintained  with  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  build- 
ing.   Such  a  plant  and  equipment  is  now  furnished  for  nearly  all  schools. 

The  next  requirement  is  that  of  teachers  to  preside  over  the  various 
classes  in  the  building,  usually  one  class  to  each  class  room.  When  the 
teachers  are  secured,  they  must  have  a  director  or  head  who  is  known  as  the 
principal.  When  a  school  has  grown  so  large  that  it  has  more  than  a  certain 
number  of  classes,  usually  twelve,  a  clerk  is  provided,  and  as  soon  as  another 
stage  of  development  is  reached,  a  more  highly  paid  teacher  is  employed.     The 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  g 

principal  must  see  that  the  child  is  cared  for  and  protected  on  his  arrival  in 
the  morning.  Provision  must  be  made  whereby  the  pupils  can  go  without 
undue  crowding  to  their  class  rooms  at  a  set  time  from  fifteen  to  twenty  min- 
utes before  nine  o'clock.  The  classes  and  the  teachers  must  be  assigned  to 
rooms  whose  equipment  is  suitable  to  the  age  and  grade  of  the  pupils.  Each 
teacher  must  be  given  a  full  set  of  books,  pencils,  pens,  paper,  crayons,  globes, 
maps,  blackboard  erasers,  drawing  materials,  and  other  furnishings.  All  this 
must  be  provided  from  the  stock  which  has  been  previously  secured  by  the 
principal.  Each  teacher  must  be  charged  with  the  supplies  furnished  her, 
so  that  those  which  are  left  over  at  the  end  of  the  term  can  be  taken  up  and 
handed  to  her  successor.  As  fast  as  the  stock  in  the  stock  room  is  depleted, 
more  must  be  ordered  so  that  the  requests  of  the  teachers  for  additional 
stock  and  supplies  may  be  honored  each  week  as  they  are  made.  Each 
teacher  must  be  supplied  with  a  program  of  work  for  her  grade.  This  pro- 
gram must  be  so  adjusted  that  the  total  amount  of  time  allotted  to  each  sub- 
ject may  be  given  to  it.  In  addition  to  this,  the  day's  work  mus  be  so  arranged 
that  the  subjects  will  follow  each  other  in  the  best  way. 

Regulations  must  be  made  by  which  the  pupils  may  leave  the  room  as 
occasion  may  demand,  but  without  allowing  them  opportunity  to  loiter  and 
play  outside  during  school  hours.  In  the  lowest  grades,  recess  periods  must 
be  provided  and  arrangements  must  be  made  so  that  the  pupils  in  large  num- 
bers may  go  from  the  class  rooms  into  the  open  air  and  back  again  without 
danger  of  molestation  from  the  lawless  ones  who  so  commonly  exist.  The 
re^juest  for  a  drink  must  be  met  with  a  minimum  of  sacrifice  of  school  time 
and  without  injustice  to  the  child.  The  dismissals  at  the  close  of  the  sessions 
must  be  planned  so  that  there  will  be  no  opportunity  for  crowding  nor  for 
boisterous  conduct  which  might  entail  personal  injury  to  the  weaker  children. 
During  the  recesses,  the  noon-time  intermission,  the  half  hour  before  school 
in  the  morning,  and  the  short  period  after  school  at  night,  the  corridors, 
stairs,  exits,  and  yards  must  be  carefully  guarded  by  the  teachers  to  prevent 
any  injury  to  the  younger  children.  Furthermore,  the  entire  school  must  be 
so  thoroughly  drilled  according  to  the  best  known  fire  regulations  that  the 
building  may  be  emptied  in  the  shortest  possible  time  at  an  instant's  notice. 
Whenever  large  numbers  of  children  are  assembled  under  one  roof,  there  is 
always  some  danger  from  panic  and  by  careful  drilling  the  children  must  be 
guarded  from  this  form  of  peril. 

Now  that  the  school  has  been  assembled,  equipped  with  working  material, 
and  abundant  provision  has  been  made  for  entrance  and  exit,  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  principal  and  his  assistants  to  supervise  the  class  room  instruction 
which  is,  after  all,  the  sole  purpose  of  the  child's  attendance.  In  each  subject 
in  the  curriculum,  the  best  methods  must  be  shown  to  the  teachers,  and  the 
work  of  the  different  grades  must  be  so  correlated  that  there  will  be  no  waste 
of  time  when  pupils  pass  from  grade  to  grade,  because  of  variety  of  methorl 
or  duplication  of  effort. 

A  system  of  reports  must  be  devised  so  that  the  teacher  can  inform  the 
office  each  day  of  the  attendance  of  her  class.  Roll  books  containing  the 
names  of  the  pupils  must  be  kept.  At  the  end  of  each  month  the  parents 
must  be  notified  of  the   standing  of  their  children.     A  system  of  informal 


10  SCHOOL    WORK 

reports  to  the  parents  to  cover  the  cases  of  disorderly  and  backward  pupils 
must  also  be  devised.  Parents  and  officials  who  visit  the  school  must  be 
received  by  the  principal  or  his  deputies,  and  sent  away  satisfied  with  the 
justice  of  the  treatment  accorded  to  the  children,  and  of  the  efficiency  of  their 
instruction.  Examinations  must  be  held  throughout  the  school  at  regular  in- 
tervals to  test  the  work  that  is  being  done.  These  must  be  supplemented  by 
daily  inspections  of  classes,  and  every  efifort  must  be  made  to  overcome 
tendencies  to  idleness.  By  means  of  public  assemblies  in  which  a  dozen  or 
more  classes  unite,  a  feeling  of  co-operation  and  esprit  de  corps  must  be 
created  in  the  school.  This  is  also  the  best  opportunity  for  the  principal  to 
second  the  efforts  of  the  teachers  in  ethical  instruction. 

Criticism 

This  course  as  outlined  above  is  practically  what  is  given  in  New^  York 
City  and  in  the  best  schools  of  New  York  State.  In  general  it  represents  the 
most  advanced  school  work  in  all  parts  of  this  country.  The  provision  of 
buildings  is  good.  The  teachers,  however,  are  only  fairly  well  equipped.  We 
have  not  escaped  wholly  from  the  thought  prevalent  two  hundred  years  ago, 
that  anybody  could  teach  school.  Ichabod  Crane  was  once  the  accepted 
type  of  teacher  in  reality  as  he  still  is  in  fiction.  It  is  therefore  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  high  school  pupils  with  a  fifteen  months'  course  at  the 
training  school  are  the  main  reliance  for  recruiting  the  teaching  staff'  in  this 
city.  It  is  a  very  common  thing  to  hear  a  teacher  discuss  a  "drawring  lesson," 
and  to  listen  as  she  directs  a  pupil  to  "take  this  here  seat."  Another  teacher, 
who  ought  to  have  known  better,  was  seriously  teaching  her  class  that  the 
reason  why  the  summer  is  warmer  than  the  winter  is  that  the  sun  is  nearer 
the  earth  in  the  summer!  These  are  but  incidents  of  the  day's  w^ork,  how- 
ever, and  we  may  be  and  we  are  thankful  that  the  standard  of  attainment  for 
those  who  desire  to  teach  is  constantly  rising.  A  small  boy  remarked  to  his 
mother,  "Ma,  it  will  be  so  after  a  while  that  poor  folks  cannot  teach  school." 
The  wise  mother  promptly  replied,  "My  boy,  it  will  soon  be  so  that  poor 
folks  can  get  the  best  kind  of  an  education."  This  is  the  goal,  and  we  shall 
press  forward  toward  it.  But  in  the  meantime,  we  must  not  be  blind  to  the 
conditions  which  now  obtain,  and,  if  we  can  anticipate  the  development  of 
the  next  fifty  years  in  educating  some  of  our  children,  we  must  do  so. 

In  addition  to  the  drawback  of  indifferently  prepared  teachers,  is  the 
serious  one  of  large  classes  to  which  allusion  has  been  made.  A  class  of  six 
is  all  that  one  thoroughly  equipped  teacher  can  instruct.  There  are  times 
when  even  such  a  class  must  be  subdivided.  The  writer  once  had  a  class 
of  two  pupils  in  Xenophon's  Anabasis  in  the  high  school.  ^luch  merriment 
was  roused  when  he  divided  it  into  two  sections,  giving  each  half  the  time 
allotted  to  the  subject.  How  much  worse  for  the  individuals  concerned 
would  the  conditions  have  been  if  the  class  had  contained  forty  instead  of 
two!  A  poorly  prepared  teacher  can  while  away  the  time  with  a  large  class 
and  truthfully  comi)lain  that  the  periods  are  too  long,  a  statement  by  no 
means  unknown.  But  the  facts  are  that  a  teacher  who  is  full  of  her  work 
and  bubbling  over  with  enthusia.sm  can  save  time  for  her  pupils  if  she  can 
study  the  needs  and  abilities  of  each  one.     It  would  not  seem  possible  that 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  ii 

any  pupils  could  go  through  the  schools  and  retain  the  ignorance  cited  in  the 
preceding  paragraph.  But  this  shows  that  when  a  class  is  too  large  for  the 
teacher  to  handle  properly,  much  that  is  erroneous  will  get  by  instead  of  being 
eradicated. 

There  is  careless  ignorance  on  the  part  of  most  public  officials  as  to  the 
needs  of  school  administration.  An  elementary  school  principal  is  put  in 
charge  of  a  plant  valued  at  $500,000.  The  annual  payroll  and  expense  of 
maintenance  is  about  $60,000,  which  on  a  6%  basis  represents  a  capitalization 
of  $1,000,000  more.  This  magnificent  outfit  of  $1,500,000  is  put  into  the  hands 
of  a  competent  man  at  a  salary  presumably  adequate.  A  mother  comes  in  to 
inquire  about  her  boy  who  is  in  a  class  room  a  block  away.  The  principal's 
time  is  worth  to  the  city  on  its  own  estimate  6  cents  a  minute.  On  a  business 
basis,  one  would  expect  him  to  call  the  distant  teacher  by  telephone,  get  the 
information,  and  dispatch  the  case  in  five  minutes.  But  he  is  not  supplied 
with  a  telephone,  and  he  must  send  for  a  messenger,  write  a  note  of  inquiry, 
wait  for  it  to  be  carried  to  its  destination,  and  for  the  return  of  the  reply 
which  the  teacher  writes.  Often  the  information  is  incomplete  and  a  longer 
wait  is  involved  while  it  is  being  completed  by  another  inquiry.  He  is  for- 
tunate if  he  escapes  in  half  an  hour.  The  principal  is  often  called  from  a 
class  room  at  a  critical  time  by  an  insistent  parent  who  brings  a  letter  from  the 
District  Superintendent  to  the  principal  and  declines  to  see  any  one  else.  The 
message  is  as  a  rule  on  some  routine  matter  which  could  be  referred  to  its 
proper  department  over  the  telephone  without  requiring  the  principal  to 
abandon  the  work  in  which  he  is  engaged.  This  illustrates  one  of  the  many 
crude  ways  in  which  the  school  head  is  expected  to  administer  his  million 
dollar  plant  with  constant  loss  to  the  city,  because  of  the  pound  wise  and  penny 
foolish  policy  of  seemingly  shrewd  business  men  who  permit  an  annual  loss 
of  efficiency  of  thousands  of  dollars  in  the  principals'  offices  alone. 

Public  opinion  supports  our  schools  as  they  are  to-day.  Enlightened  public 
opinion  will  support  them  better  to-morrow.  But  in  view  of  this  waste  of 
energy  and  loss  of  efficiency,  no  argument  is  needed  to  show  that  a  system 
which,  even  though  revolutionized  would  be  far  short  of  perfect,  is  not  the 
best  that  can  be  devised.  More  individualism  is  desirable,  and  it  must  be 
so  applied  that  it  will  not  deprive  the  child  of  the  social  effect  needed  and 
given  in  perfect  education. 

When  the  time  comes  for  the  child  to  leave  his  home  where  his  individu- 
ality has  received  much  consideration,  he  enters  the  school  and  finds  himself 
one  of  a  class  numbering  from  forty  to  seventy  pupils  under  one  teacher.  His 
own  personal  inclinations,  his  fancied  desires,  and  even  his  needs  must  give 
way  to  the  best  good  of  the  entire  number.  Even  his  class,  large  as  it  is,  is 
but  one  of  thirty,  fifty,  or  even  ninety  classes,  all  under  one  roof.  So  bad  is 
the  congestion  at  times,  that  two  classes  must  often  occupy  the  same  room  each 
day,  the  first  coming  shortly  after  eight  o'clock  and  leaving  at  half  past 
twelve,  and  the  other  entering  immediately  thereafter  to  work  until  the  close 
of  the  day.  The  personal  relation  maintained  by  the  mother  and  her  family 
of  even  six  or  eight  is  impossible  in  such  surroundings,  and  parents  frequently 
complain  that  their  children's  especial  desires,  aptitudes,  and  needs  are  not 
consulted.     Their  complaints  are  valid  enough  and  deserve  attention.     The 


12  SCHOOL    WORK 

teacher  is  powerless,  however,  and  no  one  knows  more  clearly  than  she  what 
a  change  is  wrought  in  the  child's  life  by  his  admission  to  school,  because  of 
the  great  difference  between  the  school  and  the  home  as  the  former  is  at 
present  organized. 

Children  of  five  and  six  years  usually  enter  school  with  the  greatest  eager- 
ness. At  ten  years  or  even  younger  there  is  no  way  by  which  great  enthus- 
iasm can  be  so  quickly  roused  as  to  announce  that  the  pupils  may  go  home  an 
hour  earlier  than  the  usual  time.  The  eager  inquisitive  five-year  old  has  be- 
come a  burden  bearer  who,  without  understanding  it  in  the  least,  realizes  some- 
how the  difference  between  school  and  home.  Almost  any  class  will  furnish 
at  least  one  child  who  quickly  grasps  the  teacher's  explanations  and  must  then 
sit  idly  by  while  the  slower  pupils  are  being  brought  up  to  the  line.  This 
process  wastes  time,  breeds  intellectual  laziness,  and  is  altogether  unprofitable 
for  the  gifted  child.  That  our  present  methods  are  in  advance  of  those  of 
past  decades  is  doubtless  true,  but  more  flexibility  is  needed,  and  the  require- 
ments of  the  individual  child  should  be  better  met.  Fondness  for  mental 
activity  other  than  story  reading  is  the  child's  birthright,  and  his  education 
should  add  to  this  rather  than  detract  from  it.  He  can,  and  in  justice  he 
should,  have  more  efficient  instruction  and  spend  fewer  hours  in  the  class 
room.  Criticism  of  our  present  system  is  general  on  the  part  of  our  leading 
educators.  Lack  of  proper  gradation  is  pointed  out  as  a  serious  fault.^  The 
charts  and  books  used  with  primary  children  do  not  express  much  that  is  new 
to  them.  Combinations  of  symbols  are  used  to  express  commonplace  and 
trivial  ideas.  'T  see  the  cat;  the  dog  runs,"  are  given  children  to  read  in- 
stead of  material  which  will  interest  because  of  its  content.  Object  lessons 
are  given  about  thimbles  and  chairs,  and  these  familiar  things  are  presented 
as  laboriously  and  fully  as  though  the  child  had  never  seen  them.  Seldom  is 
he  led  into  new  and  inviting  fields.  Even  on  the  few  occasions  when  this  is 
done,  the  unimportant  details  are  made  prominent,  while  the  essential  and  in- 
teresting features  are  omitted  altogether  or  are  briefly  touched.  "For  these 
slight  gains,  the  child  gives  his  freshest  years  and  exhausts  in  weariness  of 
spirit  the  fountains  of  intellectual  interest  and  enthusiasm." 

Another  prominent  educator-  remarks  on  the  lack  of  careful  selection  of 
details  in  nature  work,  "A  chaotic  aggregation  is  left  which  can  never  be 
covered.  This  makes  the  pupil  despair.  It  has  been  observed^  that  brisk, 
healthy  pupils  disposed  to  work  are  brought  into  the  schools.  As  a  result 
of  their  meal  of  chaff  served  daily,  these  same  pupils  go  out  at  the  end  of  the 
course  ignorant,  impotent,  cynical  about  intellectual  realities." 

Says  President  Charles  F.  Thwing,-*  "The  course  of  a  class  from  the  day 
of  its  entering  the  public  school  tilj  the  day  of  its  graduation  is  a  course  like 
the  march  of  an  army  in  retreat — it  is  marked  by  what  is  lost.  ***** 
In  every  system  of  public  schools,  the  slaughter  of  the  innocents  is  great. 
To  think  that  three  out  of  four  of  all  the  pupils  who  enter  the  primary 
schools  have  dropped  out  before  the  last  year  of  the  grammar  school,  and 
to  think  that  nine  out  of   every  ten  pupils  who  enter  the   primary   schools. 


>See  Appendix  la. 
*See  Appendix  lb. 
»See  Appendix  Ic. 
•See  Appendix    Id. 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  13 

do  not  survive  till  the  close  of  the  high  school  period,  represents  a  tremen- 
dous fact  for  not  only  the  American  school,  but  also  and  more  for  the  Ameri- 
can home  and  American  civilization." 


PART  II. 


Actual  Experiments 


John  Stuart  Mill's  account^  of  his  early  education  is  interesting,  because  it 
shows  on  his  own  testimony  how  far  he  was  in  advance  of  other  boys.  There 
were,  however,  two  apparent  defects  in  his  course  of  training.  His  labored 
English  is  shown  by  his  long,  involved  sentences.  By  his  own  confession,  the 
lack  of  practicality  in  his  education  produced  in  daily  life  "inattention,  inob- 
servance, and  general  slackness  of  mind."  That  he  had  an  unusually  early 
knowledge  of  books  is  evident,  but  his  knowledge  of  men  was  acquired  much 
later.  In  his  autobiography,  he  states  that  he  began  to  learn  Greek  when  he 
was  three  years  old.  His  education  was  under  the  direct  care  of  his  father 
who  spared  no  pains  nor  labor  in  helping  the  boy  forward.  The  latter  pre- 
pared his  Greek  lessons  at  the  same  table  where  his  father  was  writing  history. 
The  patience  of  the  elder  Mill  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  he  was  subjected  to 
constant  interruption  in  vocabulary  work  because  of  the  lack  of  lexicons.  He 
heard  all  the  boy's  lessons,  planned  all  his  work,  and  even  took  charge  of  his 
holidays.  The  youngster  was  reading  Plato  and  other  philosophers  in  Greek  at 
the  age  of  seven.  At  eight  he  began  Latin.  He  comments  on  the  fact  that 
in  boyhood  he  covered  a  vast  field  of  instruction  which  is  usually  done  in 
young  manhood.  He  thus  gained  many  precious  years.  The  quarter  of  a 
century  start  which  he  thereby  received  he  did  not  attribute  to  any  especial 
ability,  for  he  deemed  himself  rather  below  the  ordinary  in  capacity.  It  was 
all  due  to  the  careful,  conscientious  work  of  his  father.  He  was  not  allowed 
holidays  lest  they  might  breed  laziness,  but  he  was  given  a  part  of  each  day 
for  his  own  amusement.  This  was  usually  taken  alone  or  with  his  father 
and  was  of  a  bookish  turn.  Thus  he  did  not  get  the  benefit  of  association 
with  other  boys.  He  also  failed  to  develop  the  best  use  of  his  hands  and 
never  acquired  the  manual  dexterity  which  boys  commonly  have. 

Hon.  F.  A.  P.  Barnard,-  for  many  years  president  of  Columbia  Univer- 
sity, attributes  much  of  his  success  in  life  to  his  home  reading  which  was 
directed  chiefly  by  his  mother.  He  says  that  from  his  earliest  years  he  had  a 
passion  for  books.  Although  his  reading  was  unsystematic,  it  was  beneficial. 
His  library  ranged  from  Mother  Goose  to  Robinson  Crusoe  and  Pilgrim's 
Progress.  His  father  put  Shakespeare  into  his  hands  before  he  was  six 
years  old.  His  mother,  who  was  well  versed  in  literature,  introduced  him  to 
Cowper,  Burns,  Goldsmith,  Campbell,  Scott,  Byron,  among  the  poets ;  and  to 
Addison,  Johnson,  Burke,  Robertson  among  the  prose  writers.     Voyages  and 


^See  Appendix  le. 
-See    Appendix    If. 


14  SCHOOL    WORK 

travels  were  his  especial  delight.    Until  his  eleventh  year,  he  profited  more  by 
this  general,  though  desultory,  reading  than  by  all  his  other  instruction. 

He  also  declares  that  the  effect  of  hand  training  on  his  mind  was  pro- 
nounced. So  emphatic  is  he  on  this  point  that,  were  he  now  alive,  he  would 
doubtless  be  an  ardent  advocate  of  vocational  training.  He  early  felt  a  pro- 
pensity for  constructing  windmills,  watermills,  fanning  mills,  trip  hammers, 
sleds,  barrows,  kites,  and  crossbows.  In  the  village  of  Saratoga,  he  learned 
to  set  type.  Boylike,  he  frequented  the  printing  office  where  his  common  sense 
and  good  nature  made  him  a  favorite.  The  work  appealed  to  his  imagination, 
and  the  mysteries  of  the  printer's  stick  gave  him  unalloyed  delight.  Here 
he  spent  all  his  time  out  of  school,  and  he  became  proficient  in  all  the  work 
of  the  office.  He  declares  that  at  any  time  in  his  life  he  could  have  earned 
a  living  as  a  practical  printer.  He  speaks  of  many  advantages  coming  from 
this  experience,  chief  of  which  was  the  formation  of  habits  of  thought,  con- 
centration, and  perservering  industry. 

A  lawyer^  of  New  York  City,  formerly  on  the  law  faculties  of  Cornell 
and  Columbia  Universities,  had  his  attention  especially  drawn  toward  edu- 
cation. European  travel  convinced  him  that  there  were  more  effective  mean'^ 
to  impart  a  knowledge  of  modern  languages  than  those  offered  by  the  schools. 
He  '.herefore  planned  for  his  son  such  courses  in  German  and  French  that 
the  )ad  was  not  only  saved  from  months  of  hard  labor  but  he  was  made 
tmusuaPy  proficient  in  those  studies.  The  boy  had  a  slight  knowledge  of 
German,  when,  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  he  went  to  Germany.  He  spent  a 
year  there  in  his  uncle's  home  with  a  German  tutor,  studying  and  sp^eaking 
the  language.  On  his  return  to  school  in  America,  when  fourteen  years  old, 
he  was  so  far  ahead  of  all  the  high  school  classes  in  German  that  he  did 
not  take  their  work.  At  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  spent  ten  weeks  of  the  summer 
in  a  German  family  abroad,  and  in  the  fall  he  passed  the  preliminary  and 
advanced  Harvard  entrance  examinations.  His  sister  had  a  French  nurse,  and 
he  became  slightly  ear  trained  in  French.  In  his  thirteenth  year  he  had  a 
tutor  in  this  tongue,  and  he  accjuired  a  good  reading  knowledge.  The  summer 
before  his  entrance  at  Harvard,  he  had  a  tutor  for  ten  weeks  in  France.  He 
then  passed  the  Harvard  entrance  examinations  in  both  preliminary  and  ad- 
vanced French.  During  his  freshman  year  in  college,  he  took  a  course  in 
French  literature  conducted  in  that  language.  In  both  these  languages  he  is 
quite  proficient  and  his  college  work  has  i)roducctl  richer  results  because  of 
his  excellent  preparation. 

An  eight-year-old  girl-  who  had  the  advantage  of  private  instruction  at 
home  was  taught  arithmetic,  reading,  local  geography  with  its  correlated 
history,  drawing,  spelling,  and  writing.  An  abundance  of  stories,  both  original 
and  reproduced,  were  used.  In  arithmetic,  when  multiplication  was  the  lead- 
ing subject,  the  aim  was  to  show  her  that  addition,  multiplication,  subtraction, 
and  division  cannot  always  be  separated.  Although  this  process  seems  long 
and  intricate,  it  has  in  her  case  been  surer  and  less  tiresome  than  the  study 
of  separate  tables.  It  resulted  in  giving  her  accuracy  and  ease  in  using  simple 
combinations.    Legends,  folklore  and  myths  were  used  for  her  reading.    Greek 

'See    Appendix    Ig. 
2.See   Appendix   Ih. 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  15 

and  Roman  mythology  were  presented  in  a  clear,  well  written  form.  In  poetry, 
for  the  classical  Whittier,  Longfellow,  and  Bryant,  were  substituted  Dunbar, 
Stevenson,  Field,  and  Riley.  She  was  far  more  interested  in  Riley's  "Home- 
made Fairy  Tales,"  with  "the  little  dude  fairy  who  winked  at  me,"  than  chil- 
dren usually  are  in  the  Village  Blacksmith,  beautiful  as  it  is.  Her  geography 
included  those  land  and  water  divisions  which  she  saw  or  about  which  she 
heard.  Something  of  the  oceans  and  the  hemispheres  were  included.  With 
all  these  the  teacher  interwove  personal  observation,  exeprience,  and  history. 
In  connection  with  the  western  hemisphere,  the  story  of  Columbus  brought  in 
the  new  world.  A  trip  from  New  Jersey  to  New  York  City  fitly  introduced 
the  story  of  Henry  Hudson.  Her  geography  was  largely  pictorial  and  his- 
torical except  when  fine  weather  gave  access  to  forest,  field,  and  meadow, 
and  then  it  was  merged  into  botany  and  geology.  Her  reproduced  stories 
were  good,  her  original  stories  were  logical  and  were  presented  even  better. 
In  all  subjects  she  was  given  the  pith  and  point.  Only  essentials  were 
emphasized. 

A  physician'  and  his  wife,  of  Dartmouth,  Mass.,  prepared  their  son  for 
the  high  school  in  three  years  after  the  beginning  of  his  formal  alphabet 
work  at  the  age  of  four.  They  selected  the  work  very  carefully  and  gave 
him  close  attention.  Memorization  was  kept  at  the  minimum  and  rules  were 
acquired  by  noting  their  application.  During  the  high  school  course,  he  spent 
only  recitation  hours  with  his  class.  His  mother  had  been  a  teacher,  and  the 
trained  skill  with  which  the  boy  was  guided  resulted  in  a  marked  saving  of 
time. 

The  theory  that  a  child  in  an  educated  atmosphere  does  not  need  the 
routine  training  of  the  school  room  during  his  early  years,  but  that  he  acquires, 
without  conscious  effort,  a  vast  amount  of  information  from  his  environment 
was  held  by  the  parents  of  an  only  child  with  but  few  playmates,  hence 
naturally  the  constant  companion  of  her  father  and  mother.  She  was  never  left 
with  nurses,  her  mother  giving  personal  care  to  her  child  who  was  never 
thrown  in  contact  with  the  careless  English  of  the  ordinary  housemaid.  The 
temptation  to  indulge  in  baby  talk  was  put  aside.  Although  she  was  not 
forward  in  talking,  at  two  years  she  could  pronounce  distinctly  and  use  per- 
fectly over  two  hundred  words.  No  formal  teaching  was  given  before  she 
was  five  years  old,  there  bdng  no  desire  to  push  her.  An  endeavor  was  made, 
however,  to  answer  her  questions  fully  and  satisfactorily  even  to  an  extent 
ordinarily  considered  beyond  the  comprehension  of  one  so  young.  She  was 
not  burdened  with  useless  commands,  but  an  effort  was  made  to  train  reason 
and  judgment  by  explaining  the  why  and  wherefore  of  each  requirement. 
This  demanded  patience  and  at  one  time  seemed  to  interfere  with  prompt 
obedience,  especially  if  there  was  any  reluctance  to  execute  the  command. 
To  overcome  this  instances  were  cited  to  her  in  which  it  was  very  evident 
that  prompt  obedience  was  necessary.  She  was  taught  that  she  must  obey 
first,  asking  afterwards  for  the  reason  if  it  had  not  been  given  or  was  not 
clear.  In  this  way  there  was  developed  in  her  good  sense  and  clear  percep- 
tion, that  always  stood  her  in  good  stead.  The  desire  to  "do  things"  was 
encouraged,  and  her  efforts,  however  crude,  were  praised,  so  that  she  gained 


^See  Appendix  li. 


i6  SCHOOL    WORK 

contidence  and  was  willing  and  eager  to  try  any  new  thing.  This,  together 
with  the  fact  that  she  was  never  threatened  nor  frightened  nor  allowed  to  hear 
stories  that  tend  to  excite  alarm,  did  much  toward  overcoming  fear  and 
timidity.  Darkness,  thunderstorms,  snakes,  mice,  or  animals,  as,  for  instance, 
the  wolf  in  Red  Ridinghood,  were  dealt  with  in  a  way  to  attract  and  not 
repel.  Some  results  of  this  fearlessness  and  willingness  to  try  were  evident 
at  all  times.  She  was  not  more  than  seven  years  old  when  she  desired  to 
make  a  birthday  cake  for  a  little  friend  and  wanted  the  gift  to  be  her  own 
work.  Although  she  had  never  attempted  anything  of  the  sort  before,  she  was 
given  a  recipe  and  left  alone  in  the  kitchen.  She  read  the  directions,  measured 
the  ingredients,  put  them  together,  and  baked  the  cake,  without  assistance 
save  in  testing  it  before  taking  it  from  the  oven.  The  result  was  a  complete 
success.  Again,  she  learned  to  climb,  row.  swim,  and  shoot,  fearlessly  ani^. 
well,  not  from  association  with  boys  who  naturally  do  such  things,  but  froui 
a  willingness  to  try  what  she  saw  others  doing  or  what  she  was  told  >i'c 
could  do. 

Bv  the  time  she  was  three  years  old,  she  had  learned  several  letters  on  her 
blocks,  but  she  was  not  taught  to  read  till  she  was  nearly  six.  She  was  early 
introduced  to  Mother  Goose  and  to  Father  Goose,  which  she  thoroughly 
enjoyed,  not  only  for  the  jingles,  but  for  the  unique  illustrations,  and  ere  long 
she  could  repeat  by  heart  most  of  the  verses  on  seeing  the  proper  picture. 
Later  she  enjoyed  repeating  them  dialogue  fashion,  she  giving  a  line  or  part 
of  one  and  her  companion  completing  the  couplet.  Many  walks  along  the 
city  streets  were  enlivened  in  this  way.  Good  poetry  was  also  read  to  her, 
and  by  the  time  she  had  learned  to  read  she  had  acquired  a  taste  for  the 
beautiful  and  inspiring  as  well  as  for  the  truly  humorous  in  literature.  In  all 
her  later  reading  the  effort  was  made  to  so  guide  her  that  she  would  learn 
to  appreciate  unconsciously  the  best.  Her  books  were  confined  almost  entirely 
to  mythological,  historical,  and  biographical  stories,  with  a  judicious  mixture 
of  fairy  tales,  Alice  in  Wonderland  (which  she  read  many  times),  Kingsley's 
Waterbabies,  and  kindred  books.  She  had  a  number  of  volumes  of  poetry, 
all  of  which  she  seemed  to  enjoy,  from  the  Adventures  of  Teddy  B  and 
Teddy  G  to  Browning's  Childe  Roland  to  the  Dark  Tower  Came,  and  the 
Nieblungenlied.  Pictures  of  authors  together  with  the  events  and  scenes  of 
which  they  wrote  were  gathered  from  many  sources  and  used  extensively. 
\'isits  to  the  homes  of  famous  men  and  women  were  taken  whenever  possible 
and  in  connection  therewith  she  was  told  something  of  their  lives  and  works. 
When  she  was  seven  years  old,  she  visited  Grand  Pre.  and  the  story  of  the 
Acadians  was  related  to  her,  after  which  she  enjoyed  the  reading  of  Evange- 
line. Travel  was  always  utilized  to  stimulate  interest  in  the  geography,  his- 
tory, and  literature  pertaining  to  the  locality. 

The  actual  learning  to  read  was  accomplished  in  thirty  lessons.  She  knew 
possibly  a  dozen  words  and  the  entire  alphabet,  when  at  the  age  of  five  years 
and  nine  months  she  began  to  have  definite  instruction  in  reading.  Arnold's 
Stepping  Stones  to  Literature  was  used  for  the  first  few  lessons.  Then 
Scribner's  Eugene  Field  Primer  was  given  her  and  proved  to  be  just  what 
was  needed.     She  quickly  completed  the  lessons  in  the  book,  and  she  was  then 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  17 

able  to  go  back  and  read  any  of  the  poems  which  formed  the  basis  of  the 
lessons.  Of  course,  these  were  read  to  her  at  the  beginning  of  each  lesson, 
often  two  or  three  times,  great  care  being  taken  to  render  them  with  good 
expression.  It  was  soon  evident  that  she  entered  into  the  spirit  of  what  she 
read.  On  the  completion  of  the  Field  Primer,  an  attempt  was  made  to  give 
her  a  clue  to  the  pronunciation  of  new  words.  Her  large  vocabulary  and  her 
intuitive  feeling  as  to  the  word  that  was  probably  in  accord  with  the  context 
doubtless  helped  her  and  she  frequently  corrected  herself  if  the  first  effort 
was  not  successful.  All  the  various  ways  of  representing  long  a  were  called 
to  her  attention,  as  a",  ay,  ai,  ei,  ey.  The  same  was  done  with  e>  i,  0,  u.  Then 
followed  the  letters  or  combinations  that  give  the  short  sounds  of  the  vowels 
and  the  modified  sounds  were  similarly  taught.  She  constantly  tried  new 
words  on  posters,  in  the  street  cars,  and  elsewhere.  The  word  photograph 
was  too  much  for  her  when  she  first  met  it.  On  being  told  that  ph  was  the 
equivalent  of  /,  she  at  once  spoke  the  word  correctly.  The  explanation  was 
then  given  that  ph  had  come  down  to  us  from  the  Greek  phi,  and  hence  we  had 
two  ways  in  which  the  sound  /  might  be  written.  There  was  never  any 
further  difficulty.  A  few  days  later  she  recognized  the  word  laugh  from  its 
context,  and  she  at  once  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  was  a  third  way 
of  expressing  the  sound  /  and  asked  from  what  language  that  was  derived. 
At  this  point  the  summer  vacation  interrupted  the  work,  and  it  was  found 
unnecessary  to  take  it  up  again  in  the  autumn. 

Ability  to  spell  has  followed  from  her  reading,  but  few  spelling  lessons 
ever  having  been  assigned  and  these  based  upon  some  reading.  She 
has  always  inquired  the  meaning  of  new  words.  In  her  fourth  year  she  dis- 
covered the  existence  of  synonyms,  after  which  the  word  was  explained  and 
its  use  quite  fully  illustrated.  The  finding  of  synonyms  for  words  that 
occurred  to  her  proved  a  source  of  amusement.  The  value  of  this  habit  was 
evident  when  she  began  to  compose  letters  and  stories.  She  was  encouraged  to 
write  without  paying  much  attention  to  penmanship  or  spelling  in  order  that 
she  might  learn  to  express  her  thought  easily  and  freely.  Having  made  a 
rough  draft,  she  was  told  to  go  over  it  and  improve  it,  giving  heed  to  the 
details  of  spelling  and  punctuation,  after  which  she  copied  it  correctly.  As 
she  had  never  had  writing  lessons,  the  process  of  copying  acquired  by  her 
was  somewhat  laborious.  She  was  therefore  given  a  typewi-iter  which  she 
quickly  learned  to  use  with  some  degree  of  accuracy  and  speed.  When  nine 
years  old,  she  was  given  an  edition-de-luxe  of  Webster's  Collegiate  Dictionary 
— very  attractive  to  eye  and  hand — and  this  proved  a  daily  companion.  It 
always  seemed  a  delight  to  look  up  the  meaning  and  pronunciation  of  words 
about  which  there  was  any  doubt,  and  this  habit  grew  to  be  almost  instinctive. 

No  history  lessons  were  assigned,  but  her  bedtime  stories  and  much 
of  her  reading  were  tales  of  famous  people  and  events.  At  the  age  of  nine 
she  tegan  to  evince  an  interest  in  geography.  A  text-book  and  globe  were, 
therefore,  provided,  the  latter  evoking  much  enthusiasm.  When  her  books 
were  accessible,  she  never  failed  to  look  up  the  location  of  any  place  men- 
tioned in  her  reading.  Picture  trips  were  taken  from  her  home  to  various 
points,  using  maps  as  guides  to  the  routes  and  places  visited.  Interest  was 
heightened  by  traveling  in  various  imaginary  ways,  such  as  balloon  and  air- 


i8  SCHOOL    WORK 

ship,  as  well  as  by  the  more  regular  method  of  boat,  train,  driving,  or  motor- 
ing. Stops  were  made  at  cities,  lakes,  and  mountains,  the  highest  points  in 
the  latter  being  climbed  in  imagination,  and  all  the  pictures  that  could  be 
readily  obtained  were  shown.  Then  from  a  balloon  she  looked  down  and  sur- 
mised in  what  occupations  the  people  in  various  sections  were  engaged.  Re- 
lief maps  were  found  interesting  and  helpful.  Trips  to  various  museums  were 
utilized  as  a  means  of  imparting  instruction  as  well  as  pleasure.  After  a  visit 
to  the  Museum  of  Natural  History  in  New  York  City,  she  was  asked  to  tell 
what  interested  her  the  most.  She  replied  that  it  was  the  model  showing  the 
revolution  of  the  earth  on  its  axis  and  its  relative  position  to  the  sun  every 
hour  in  the  day  and  every  day  in  the  year.  Second  in  interest  was  the  rep- 
resentation of  the  paths  of  some  of  the  planets  about  the  sun.  This  interest 
had  grown  from  some  reference  in  her  reading  to  the  Ptolemaic  system  of 
astronomy.  That  had  been  briefly  explained  to  her  and  an  attempt  made  to 
give  her  some  idea  of  our  present  system.  She  gained,  however,  only  a  crude 
conception  which  the  model  corrected  and  made  clear.  The  use  of  geograph- 
ical games  was  found  somewhat  helpful.  Best  of  all  she  enjoyed  several 
series  of  illustrated  lectures  on  points  of  interest  in  the  old  world  and  the  new. 
After  attending  lectures  on  the  capitals  of  Europe  she  read  with  interest  Stod- 
dard's lectures  on  the  same  subjects  and  continued  to  read  others  in  the 
series.  This  was  in  her  tenth  year.  She  probably  could  not  answer  ques- 
tions on  population,  area,  and  boundaries  of  states  that  many  school-trained 
children  can,  but  she  gained,  with  apparently  no  efifort  in  the  way  of  study  a 
fund  of  interesting  information.  The  necessary  details  will  be  taken  up  with 
her  later. 

Mathematics,  as  a  study,  was  not  approached  until  she  was  eight  years 
old,  but  this  was  by  no  means  her  first  interest  in  the  subject.  Very  early 
she  began  to  notice  figures  and  quickly  learned  the  Arabic  numerals  up  to 
9.  Practising  with  numbers  on  houses  or  on  street-cars  she  soon  grew  able 
to  read  combinations  of  figures.  The  register  of  fares  in  street-cars  was  an 
unending  source  of  study,  and  she  kept  tab  on  conductors  with  a  persistency 
that  would  have  done  credit  to  a  "spotter."  The  Roman  numerals  on  a  clock 
possessed  a  fascination  for  her  and  by  the  time  she  was  four  and  a  half  she 
could  tell  time  accurately.  She  could  also  play  a  game  of  flinch  well.  Before 
she  was  five  years  old,  she  could  read  any  combination  of  four  figures,  giving 
it  always  as  so  many  hundreds  instead  of  thousands,  which  word  she  later 
learned  to  use.  Up  to  this  time  and  for  several  years  subsequently  all  informa- 
tion was  given  only  in  response  to  questions  on  her  part.  When  at  the  age  of 
eight,  she  began  to  study  the  tables,  she  also  began  the  study  of  fractions  but 
without  fractional  forms.  Lines  and  squares  were  divided  into  halves,  thirds, 
etc.  She  saw  2  thirds,  3  fourths ;  never  2/3,  3/4.  Subtracting  3  eighths  from 
7  eighths  was  no  more  difficult  than  subtracting  3  pears  from  7  pears.  By 
subdividing  squares  and  crossing  out  unused  parts  she  was  soon  able  to  sub- 
tract I  third  from  i  half,  and  3  fourths  from  7  eighths.  She  had  reached 
this  point,  when,  at  the  close  of  her  ninth  year,  she  took  up,  during  the  sum- 
mer vacation,  the  daily  study  of  arithmetic  and  went  through  fractions,  deci- 
mals, and  compound  numbers  to  percentage,  the  obstruse  and  impractical  being 
culled  from  the  course.     She  lacked  logical  reasoning  power  at  first  as  applied 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  19 

to  problems,  although  in  other  ways  her  insight  was  acute.  Oral  and  written 
problems  involving  the  various  mathematical  processes  which  she  had  been 
taught  were  given.  The  new  work  was  taken  up  no  faster  than  she  thoroughly- 
understood  it,  but  it  needed  additional  repetition  and  review  to  fix  it  in  mem- 
ory. This  was  in  the  summer  vacation,  her  time  during  the  rest  of  the  year 
being  devoted  to  other  things  which  cannot  be  taken  up  so  readily  in  the 
summer.  The  next  vacation  she  made  a  rapid  review  of  the  previous  work 
and  then  went  on  through  the  subject.  She  passed  with  credit  in  September 
an  arithmetic  examination  which  was  set  for  high  school  entrance  the  pre- 
ceding June. 

In  order  to  give  her  an  all-round  development,  the  artistic  side  of  her 
education  has  not  been  neglected.  She  was  always  encouraged  to  make  pic- 
tures, and  in  her  ninth  year  she  was  put  under  the  instruction  of  a  competent 
teacher.  The  work  during  the  first  two  years  has  been  elementary,  in  crayon 
and  water  color  and  also  in  construction,  training  the  eye  to  observe  and  the 
hand  to  execute.     She  had  made  some  crude  attempts  in  clay  modeling. 

Apparently,  she  had  no  love  for  music,  though  she  learned  to  carry  a  tune 
to  the  extent  of  singing  lullabies  when  not  three  years  old.  Later,  she  seemed 
to  lose  this  ability,  and,  not  knowing  how  to  help  her,  her  mother  discouraged 
her  singing.  When  she  was  eight  years. old  a  music  teacher  was  found  who 
had  a  method  that  proved  not  only  very  successful  but  intensely  interesting. 
Piano,  singing,  writing,  composing,  transposing,  memorizing,  together  with 
playing  and  singing  by  ear  as  well  as  note  were  all  a  part  of  the  system. 
The  lessons  were  made  so  attractive  that  she  became  enthusiastic  and  finished 
a  two  years'  course  in  one.    This  interest  was  kept  up  during  the  second  year. 

In  her  ninth  year  she  also  began  work  in  the  domestic  department  of  a 
well-known  institute.  Two  hours  a  week  were  devoted  to  sewing,  which  was 
taken  up  as  a  study — not  in  a  careless,  unsystematic  way.  By  the  end  of  the 
year  the  large,  uneven  stitches  of  the  first  weeks  had  been  transformed  into 
small,  even  ones  that  were  quite  creditable.  Manual  training  of  various  kinds 
will  always  be  a  part  of  her  year's  work. 

Nor  was  the  physical  development  overlooked.  Circumstances  tended  to 
attract  her  indoors  during  the  fall  and  winter  months,  so  she  was  sent  to  a 
gymnasium  where  her  activity  and  energy  found  an  agreeable  outlet.  She 
was  taken  to  the  country  every  summer  where  she  could  have  perfect  free- 
dom and  plenty  of  out-of-door  sport.  Her  father  devoted  much  of  his  time 
to  her  and  she  learned  to  swim,  row,  shoot,  ride,  drive,  climb,  "chin,''  and 
vault.  Advantage  was  taken  of  these  summer  trips  for  some  nature  study, 
and  she  attained  quite  a  little  familiarity  with  flowers  and  trees. 

A  child^  who  is  very  fortunate  in  his  home  environment  and  training  is 
the  son  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  E.  Thayer  of  Weymouth,  Mass.  The  boy 
is  well  developed,  physically,  and  wide-awake,  but  has  never  been  considered 
a  prodigy.  That  he  is  further  advanced  mentally  than  the  average  is  due  to 
the  skilful  teaching  of  his  college-trained  father  and  mother,  and  to  the  fact 
that  his  progress  has  been  helped  by  devoted  friends  and  not  left  to  maids 
or  nurses.  His  multitudinous  questions  of  why  and  where  and  when  have 
always  received  patient  heed,  and  this  has  added  to  his  logical  ways  of  think- 

iSee  Appendix  Ik. 


20  SCHOOL    WORK 

ing.  He  has  a  very  retentive  memory.  His  interest  was  taken  as  the  guide 
in  the  selection  of  material,  for  his  earliest  instruction  and  information  was 
only  given  in  response  to  questions  which  indicated  an  evident  desire  to  know. 
He  was  two  years  old  before  he  began  to  talk,  an  accomplishment  which  he 
acquired  with  difficulty.  A  children's  party  seemed  to  be  the  turning  point  in 
his  endeavors  at  talking.  In  spite  of  this  backwardness,  his  patient  effort  early 
gave  him  an  unusual  vocabularly  and  excellent  pronunciation. 

Before  he  was  two  years  old,  he  brought  his  mother  a  letter  block.  She 
pointed  to  the  bright  letter,  repeating  several  times,  "That  is  A."  Presently 
he  picked  out  another  A  and  brought  it  to  her  with  a  shining  face,  saying, 
"A."  She  was  then  curious  to  know  if  he  could  distinguish  abstract  form 
and  showed  him  B.  He  straightway  selected  other  B's,  never  confusing  the 
letter  with  P  or  R.  In  this  way  he  soon  learned  the  entire  alphabet,  speaking 
the  names  plainly,  except  F,  S,  P  and  T,  which  he  only  sounded.  He  greatly 
enjoyed  finding  the  letters  in  a  newspaper  or  book  and  saying  over  those  that 
he  recognized,  an  occupation  which  especially  pleased  him  during  the  period 
when  he  seemed  afraid  to  try  to  speak  words.  After  this  he  was  given  com- 
binations of  the  letters  in  phonograms,  sounding  complete  words  like  cat,  hat, 
man,  etc.,  as  soon  as  possible.  As  he  began  to  talk,  he  began  to  read.  He 
gradually  progressed  with  pencil  and  paper  in  printing  letters,  then  words, 
and  finally  sentences.  After  this  he  and  his  mother  spent  much  happy  time 
in  "writing  letters  to  each  other."  At  the  age  of  four  he  could  read  in  print 
such  sentences  as,  "Ask  Papa  not  to  go  to  Boston."  He  was  then  put  in  the 
usual  course  of  primers  and  first  grade  readers,  including  the  Peter  Rabbit 
books.  Up  to  this  point,  the  work  was  all  fun  for  him,  being  based  upon  his 
own  interest,  his  m.other  following  his  lead  and  holding  him  back.  At  the  age 
of  five  he  could  read  aloud  with  great  spirit  and  expression  anything  placed  in 
his  hands — either  book  or  newspaper. 

His  literary  training  was  begun  with  the  good,  old  nursery  rhymes.  As 
soon  as  he  could  talk,  he  and  his  mother  repeated  these  in  dialogue  fashion, 
she  giving  the  first  of  the  line  and  he  the  end;  as  for  example: 

Little  Jack Horner 

Sat  in  a corner,  etc. 

Then  they  had  Stevenson's  and  Eugene  Field's  little  poems,  a  great  number  of 
which  he  memorized  without  any  apparent  efifort  and  wholly  of  his  own 
volition.  Because  of  special  interest  in  Paul  Revere's  home  in  Boston,  they 
studied  Longfellow's  Ride  of  Paul  Revere,  using  numerous  pictures  of  local- 
ity and  times,  bringing  in  incidentally  some  of  the  geogfaphy.  Beginning  at 
the  age  of  four  and  a  half,  they  took  up  chapters  in  the  poem  of  Hiawatha, 
commencing  with  his  childhood.  After  the  boy  learned  to  paddle,  the  chapter 
on  canoe-building  followed,  and  after  his  first  experience  fishing  he  was 
delighted  with  the  fishing  and  hunting  chapters.  Picture  drawing  accom- 
panied the  reading. 

When  he  was  four  years  old,  his  grandmother  went  to  California,  and  this 
furnished  an  opening  for  the  presentation  of  geography.  They  drew  a  map 
starting  with  the  table  in  the  study  room,  following  grandma  to  the  station 
and  by  easy  stages  to  the  coast  and  back.  A  year  and  a  half  later  he  could 
draw  fair  outline  maps  of  the  United  States  locating  the  oceans  and  placing 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  21 

approximately  the  principal  cities  which  came  to  their  attention.  Printed 
maps  were  afterward  used  to  follow  any  member  of  the  family  on  a  journey. 
The  aim  was  to  teach  him  to  outline  the  grand  divisions  freely  from  memory 
and  later  add  cities,  rivers,  and  mountains  as  they  were  met.  Interest  was 
stimulated  by  map  games  which  rendered  him  familiar  with  general  directions 
and  localities.  He  early  learned  the  points  of  the  compass  and  the  use  of  the 
globe. 

When  he  was  three  years  old,  it  was  found  that  he  could  count  through 
ten,  but  always  omitting  "9."  His  mother  taught  him  this  digit,  and  he  then 
went  on  by  himself,  asking  and  listening,  adding  a  few  numbers  each  day. 
"Fourteen,  fiveteen"  were  heard.  Later  he  went  on  with  "sixteen,  seventeen, 
eighteen,  nineteen,  tenteen,"  when  he  stopped  perplexed.  The  suggestion  of 
twenty  for  tenteen  relieved  his  mind.  Arithmetic  games  involving  addition  of 
numbers  up  to  twelve,  together  with  a  little  elementary  work  each  day,  covered 
his  mathematics  up  to  the  age  of  five  and  one  half  years.  At  four,  he  learned 
by  observation  and  questions  to  tell  the  time  of  day  from  the  clock. 

At  the  age  of  five,  he  was  given  a  sketch  book  like  his  mother's  and  was 
encouraged  to  use  it.  He  was  taught  the  use  of  water-color,  crayon,  pencil, 
and  freehand  scissor  cutting.  He  was  trained  to  observe  the  object  carefully, 
putting  in  the  main  outlines  and  omitting  at  least  some  of  the  details.  He 
pictured  his  dog  in  different  attitudes,  his  toy  animals,  the  tugs  and  launches 
on  the  nearby  river,  and  locomotives  with  their  trains.  At  that  age  he  under- 
stood, in  a  general  way,  the  working  of  steam  valves,  cylinders,  piston  rods, 
and  escape  pipes,  all  of  which  went  into  his  drawings.  His  imaginative  draw- 
ings were  connected  with  his  reading  and  other  interests.  His  mother  con- 
stantly worked  with  him,  drawing  at  his  suggestion  and  allowing  him  to  add 
thereto  at  his  desire.  His  sense  of  form,  color,  and  fine  was  increased  by 
playing  with  picture  puzzles.  Penmanship  was  begun  at  about  the  same  time 
and  was  rapidly  acquired  on  account  of  his  familiarity  with  the  pencil,  gained 
in  drawing. 

From  the  time  he  could  walk  he  took  a  boy's  delight  in  digging  in  the 
garden  and  in  using  tools  in  his  father's  workshop.  Manual  training  was  made 
an  essential  part  of  his  play.  The  installation  of  a  heating  plant  in  the  house 
brought  up  the  subject  of  water  pressure.  He  and  his  mother  experimented 
with  rubber  tubes,  high  and  low  tanks,  getting  many  a  shower,  but  obtain- 
ing some  really  practical  knowledge.  A  careful  course  of  Swedish  movements 
and  dancing  lessons  was  counted  on  to  train  him  in  rhythm  and  in  the  instant 
following  of  directions  in  gymnastic  work. 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  note  that  in  all  her  work  with  the  boy,  his 
mother  tried  to  follow  out  the  theory  that  the  best  teacher  is  the  one  who 
creates  in  the  child  a  desire  to  know  and  to  do,  and  then  gives  the  widest  oppor- 
tunity for  knowing  and  doing. 

Dr.  Mary  Putnam-Jacobi  has  recorded^  a  valuable  educational  experiment 
upon  a  little  girl,  beginning  when  the  child  was  not  quite  four  years  old.  The 
work  commenced  with  the  study  of  geometry.  In  six  months,  she  had  learned 
to  draw  most  of  the  combinations  of  straight  lines,  and  she  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  forms  of  all  the  triangles.     She  also  had  a  good  knowledge  of  the 

'See  Appendix  11. 


22  SCHOOL    WORK 

various  polygons  having  six  or  less  sides,  and  she  had  studied  the  circle,  the 
semicircle,  and  cube.  She  not  only  knew  the  names  of  these  magnitudes  but 
she  constantly  saw  them  in  the  natural  forms  about  her.  The  railroad  was 
pointed  out  by  her  as  an  illustration  of  parallel  straight  lines.  The  curved 
line  was  in  her  mind  associated  wath  living  things,  while  the  straight  line  be- 
longed wholly  to  man  made  objects.  At  dinner,  her  silver  arranged  itself 
in  pentagons,  and  she  found  out  that  by  increasing  the  number  of  sides  in  a 
triangle  it  gradually  approached  a  circle.  Consequently,  when  she  first  saw  a 
cylinder,  she  noted  its  resemblance  to  a  circle  "because  it  had  ever  and  ever  so 
many  sides.''  A  more  superficial  view  might  have  likened  it  to  a  prism  instead. 
This  constant  looking  for  form  led  her  to  a  spontaneous  study  of  the  alphabet 
which  she  learned  by  steadily  copying  the  letters.  At  this  point  the  practical 
application  of  geometric  forms  was  introduced.  She  readily  saw  that  no 
less  than  three  lines  could  be  used  to  fence  in  a  mischievous  pony  so  that  he 
could  not  destroy  the  garden.  Thus,  the  connection  was  established  between 
the  lines  with  which  she  had  previously  been  concerned  and  the  actual  neces- 
sities of  life. 

When  she  was  five  years  old,  the  axiom,  "things  which  are  equal  to  the 
same  thing  are  equal  to  each  other,"  was  taken  up.  The  question  was  raised 
as  to  the  relative  height  of  her  cousin,  Jenny,  who  lived  in  Boston,  and  her 
cousin,  Fanny,  who  lived  in  Syracuse.  These  two  cousins  had  never  seen  each 
other,  but  she  had  visited  them  both  and  could  compare  their  height  wnth  her 
own.  She  thus  became  the  common  measure  by  which  she  could  determine 
that  the  two  cousins  were  equal  in  height  because  that  of  each  girl  in  turn  was 
equal  to  her  own.  Similarly,  the  floor  and  ceiling  of  the  library  were  shown 
to  be  of  the  same  length  because  they  respectively  bordered  the  same  wall. 
Later  on  the  device  of  colored  sticks  was  employed,  and  the  first  algebraic 
signs  of  equality  and  of  inequality  were  taught  without  any  knowledge  of 
writing.  That  the  child  thoroughly  understood  this  axiom  was  shown  by  the 
numerous  illustrations  which  she  herself  brought  forward.  Some  other  axioms 
were  taught  in  like  fashion.  That  the  whole  is  equal  to  the  sum  of  all  its 
parts  seemed  to  the  child  merely  descriptive  of  a  large  fungus  numerously 
cleft  which  she  picked  up  during  a  walk. 

At  the  age  of  four  and  a  half  the  observation  of  the  rainbow  was  cm- 
ployed  to  introduce  elementary  colors.  She  distinguished  the  colors  in  theii 
order  and  rc])roduccd  them  by  means  of  colored  sticks.  This  succession  of  the 
seven  colors  in  the  rainbow  order  was  reproduced  in  a  variety  of  geometric 
forms,  using  lines,  rectangles,  and  solids.  Later  the  Egyptian  desert  and  the 
pyramids  were  represented  by  a  sand  table.  On  this,  fields  of  rainbow  colors 
were  laid  out  and  filled  with  appropriately  colored  flowers  gathered  from  her 
own  garden.  This  entire  exercise  brought  in  concejitions  of  form  and  color 
and  introduced  the  subject  of  botany,  showing  again  the  relation  of  abstract 
geometry  and  color  to  real  life.  Sustained  attention  was  necessary  and  many 
different  ideas  were  wrought  into  a  single  complex  concept.  None  of  these 
things  were  described  in  words,  the  endeavor  being  to  give  mental  content  and 
capacity  before  introducing  language. 

The  next  step  was  the  study  of  the  points  of  the  compass.  She  first 
constructed  figures  which  would  serve  to  indicate  the  cardinal  directions.     She 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY 


23 


then  used  these  out  of  doors  in  connection  with  the  sun  at  morning  and  at 
nightfall.  The  compass  was  then  shown  her,  and  her  country  walks  were 
thereafter  directed  by  it.  This  was  her  first  introduction  to  the  use  of  scientific 
instruments,  and  was  followed  up  by  the  ruler,  spirit  level,  pulley,  wedge,  and 
balance.  The  ruler  and  balance  together  with  other  measures  greatly  simplified 
that  portion  of  her  arithmetic.  The  metric  system  was  taught  first,  because  of 
its  logical  nature  and  because  of  the  simple  interrelation  of  its  different  sub- 
divisions. Her  mind  was  thus  prepared  for  the  idea  of  scientific  correlation. 
The  common  system  of  weights  and  measures  was  then  taught,  because  it 
was  of  some  practical  convenience.  These  were  applied  by  errands  to  the 
grocer  and  other  merchants,  and  the  mere  memorization  of  tables  was  omitted. 

The  third  cosmic  notion  introduced,  in  addition  to  color  and  direction, 
was  that  of  perspective.  Passing  ships,  trains,  and  birds  were  seen  to  diminish 
in  size  as  they  receded  toward  the  horizon.  This  observation  made  a  deep 
impression  upon  her.  It  was  her  first  personal  knowledge  of  the  discrepancy 
between  appearance  and  reality,  and  the  necessity  of  correcting  the  informa- 
tion given  by  the  senses.  When  she  was  five  years  old,  she  was  shown  in 
drawing  a  cube  how  a  slanting  line  represents  a  retreat  from  the  foreground. 
This  new  discovery  was  full  of  interest  and  was  speedily  tested  in  a  variety 
of  ways.  The  possibility  of  representing  a  solid  object  on  a  flat  surface 
seemed  little  short  of  marvelous  and  was  at  once  introduced  into  all  her  draw- 
ing.    To  this  was  added  the  effect  of  light  and  shade  in  perspective. 

At  about  the  age  of  five,  she  began  the  study  of  dissected  maps  of  the 
United  States,  in  order  to  aid  in  the  clearness  of  her  space  conceptions. 
This  plan  was  used  because  of  its  practical  interest,  instead  of  the  usual 
survey  of  familiar  localities.  The  compass  was  used  in  this  work  and  the  map 
was  turned  so  that  it  faced  the  real  north.  Only  a  little  information  about 
unknown  territory  could  be  given  so  young  a  child.  Therefore,  she  established 
imaginary  associations.  Virginia  was  a  kneeling  camel.  Maine  was  a  dog's 
head.  Tennessee  was  a  sled.  The  study  of  one  map  was  continued  for  six 
months.  At  the  end  of  this  time,  she  could  bound  any  state  and  tell  the 
adjoining  states  in  any  direction.  The  work  was  then  continued  with  a  relief 
globe  which  gave  effects  and  impressions  that  could  have  been  obtained  from 
nothing  else.  She  drew  outline  maps  from  the  globe,  revolving  it  somewhat 
until  she  was  able  to  copy  all  its  larger  outlines.  This  geographical  study 
led  to  four  different  lines  of  thought.  The  first  was  physical  geography,  un- 
mixed with  other  details.  The  second  was  history,  because  the  first  map 
drawn  was  of  Africa  on  account  of  its  simple  outline.  This  brought  in  the 
Mediterranean  Valley,  and,  passing  to  the  eastward,  the  Indian  Ocean  and 
table-lands  of  northern  India.  The  way  was  thus  prepared  for  giving  her 
at  a  later  date  the  descent  of  our  Aryan  ancestors  and  their  successors  toward 
the  west.  The  third  was  a  clear  presentation  of  the  topography  of  the 
earth.  The  fourth  was  an  elementary  philosophical  training  in  the  selection 
of  the  various  details  presented  by  the  globe  and  the  arrangement  of  these 
details  in  her  own  generalization. 

During  this  year,  the  transition  from  plane  to  solid  figures  in  geometry 
involved  the  recognition  of  some  words.  She  was  given  wooden  models,  and 
from  them  she  learned  the  names  of  the  cube,  sphere,  ovoid,  oblate,  cylinder. 


24  SCHOOL    WORK 

prism,  tetrahedron,  etc.  She  then  constructed  in  parallel  columns  plane  and 
solid  figures  with  the  same  number  of  sides.  Her  attention  was  called 
to  the  common  prefixes,  tetra-,  penta-,  hexa-,  etc.,  which  belonged  to  both 
columns,  and  these  were  placed  in  the  middle.  It  was  then  noted  that  the 
suffix  gon  belonged  to  the  plane  figures  and  hedron  to  the  solids.  Movable 
letters  were  used  and  the  exercises  were  repeated  until  perfectly  familiar. 
The  clearness  of  the  impression  upon  the  child's  mind,  as  yet  unoccupied  by 
other  quality  notions,  was  shown  a  few  weeks  later  by  her  comment  at  din- 
ner when  she  said  that  the  small,  stewed  onions  were  "oblates."  The  cord 
of  the  window  shade  another  day  formed  two  "scalene  triangles."  The  light 
on  the  ceiling  above  the  lamp  at  night  made  "concentric  circles." 

The  intrinsic  meaning  of  words  was  pursued  a  little  further  in  her  study 
of  the  ovary  and  ovule  in  a  flower.  Her  attention  was  called  to  the  analogy 
between  the  vegetable  ovule  and  the  chicken's  egg  ovum,  and  the  relation  of 
the  ovum  to  the  geometric  ovoid.  The  four  objects  with  their  names  were 
placed  before  her  and  the  common  root  "ov"  was  taken  out.  She  was  also 
shown  that  this  common  root  indicated  a  deep  relation  between  objects  which 
had  many  superficial  differences.  When  this  idea  had  been  clearly  formulated 
and  understood,  it  was  temporarily  left.  That  the  idea  was  fully  grasped 
was  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  child  remarked  that  a  certain  potato  was 
shaped  like  an  egg  and  would  therefore  be  called  an  ovoid.  When  asked  why 
she  did  not  call  it  an  ovum,  she  answered,  "Because  it  is  not  an  egg  but,  only 
shaped  like  an  egg."  Only  her  childlike  simplicity  kept  her  from  asking  the 
waiter  for  ovules  instead  of  eggs.  This  precision  in  the  use  of  terms  was 
followed  by  distinctions  in  natural  history.  For  example,  a  piece  of  mica  was 
called  isinglass  in  her  presence.  Procuring  a  piece  of  real  isinglass,  she  was 
privately  shown  the  difference  between  the  two.  and  cautioned  to  avoid  the 
slovenly  language  of  the  uneducated.  After  six  months'  study  of  the  wooden 
geometric  models,  a  set  of  crystal  models  was  secured.  Sirice  each  face  of 
the  crystal  suggested  the  name  of  some  plane  figure,  this  and  her  knowledge 
of  the  Greek  numerals  enabled  her  to  recognize  twenty-six  crystals  and  even 
devise  their  names,  such  as  scalenehedron,  rhombio,  dedecahedron,  etc.  This 
study  was  carried  on  until  by  means  of  clay  models  it  included  axes  which 
were  shown  to  be  the  basis  of  classification. 

Arithmetic  followed  the  first  studies  of  form  and  outline  by  a  few  months. 
At  first,  by  means  of  sticks  of  different  colors  and  sizes,  she  studied  the 
numbers  4,  9,  12,  24,  36,  which  seem  almost  like  natural  entities.  These  she 
divided  into  symmetrical  groups  of  3's,  4's,  and  6's,  placed  in  many  a  fan- 
tastic combination.  Thus  was  effected  the  transition  from  form  to  number, 
by  numerous  vivid  visual  impressions.  The  child's  destructive  power  obviously 
precedes  that  of  construction,  and  this  tendency  was  employed  in  breaking 
up  the  above  mentioned  numerical  unities  before  trying  to  form  them  by 
addition.  On  reaching  the  number  27,  she  was  told  inadvertently  that  it  was 
the  smallest  cube  that  could  be  constructed  from  smaller  cubes.  A  year 
previous,  when  four  years  old,  she  had  learned  to  handle  cubes  and  at  once 
she  corrected  the  mistake  by  building  a  cube  from  eight  blocks.  Thus  it  is 
seen  that  ideas  given  in  the  right  way  are  tenacious.  A  child  often  meets 
difficulties  imsuspected  by  the  teacher.     It  was   found  that  if  she  were  told 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  25 

to  inform  Jenny  how  much  money  must  be  given  her  to  buy  a  i6c.  doll  when 
she  had  13c.,  the  problem  was  beyond  her  power,  because,  as  she  said,  "You 
cannot  take  13c.  from  i6c.,  for  Jenny  does  not  have  i6c."  Her  teacher  then 
told  her  to  use  sticks  with  the  understanding  that  blue  sticks  should  represent 
the  imaginary  number  and  red  sticks  the  number  actually  in  hand.  Thus 
she  made  her  first  stride  into  the  realm  where  the  existent  and  the  non- 
existent are  associated  in  practical  affairs.  At  the  age  of  six  and  a  half, 
she  had  thoroughly  mastered  the  four  operations  through  long  division,  and 
had  done  considerable  with  fractions. 

The  last  study,  commenced  during  her  fifth  year,  was  that  of  organic 
objects  as  represented  by  plants.  She  began  by  observing  seven  beans  on  a 
saucer  of  cotton-wool.  A  specimen  bean  had  first  been  dissected,  and  by 
daily  use  the  child  was  rendered  quite  familiar  with  the  cotyledons,  the  embryo 
with  its  radicle  and  plumule,  and  the  episperm.  She  also  knew  thoroughly  the 
names  themselves.  The  seven  beans  were  given  fanciful  names  when  planted, 
and  the  teacher  wrote  a  daily  journal  which  was  dictated  by  the  pupil.  The 
first  appearance  of  the  radicle  was  noted  in  the  entire  history  of  each  bean, 
and  the  growth  of  the  plumule  into  a  trailing  vine  was  carefully  observed. 
Emphasis  was  laid  on  the  succession  of  events  rather  than  on  mathematics. 
On  one  occasion  the  child  dictated  the  following  entry:  "The  episperm  or  the 
underside  of  Tertius  is  all  black  and  has  split,  leaving  a  space,  the  shape  of 
an  equilateral  triangle  with  the  apex  pointing  to  the  convex  side  of  the  cotyle- 
dons." The  second  year,  seven  hyacinths  were  similarly  studied,  and  she 
wrote  the  journal  herself.  In  this  process,  she  first  observed  the  new  devel- 
opment of  the  plant,  and  then  accurately  described  it  orally.  This  sentence 
she  then  dictated  in  which  process  some  knowledge  of  spelling  was  acquired 
after  which  she  copied  it,  concentrating  her  attention  upon  the  force  of  the 
letters. 

As  a  concession  to  the  prevailing  fashion,  she  was  now  taught  to  read, 
although  the  study  was  made  quite  subordinate.  Led  by  the  illustrations, 
she  would  select  a  chapter,  and  she  would  generally  tell  the  subject  correctly. 
To  some  extent  she  gave  the  words  in  each  sentence  from  the  context.  If 
the  wrong  word  was  offered,  she  was  directed  to  spell  it  out  by  sounds.  She 
always  sought  the  predominant  sound  and  built  up  the  word  around  it,  instead 
of  taking  the  letters  of  the  word  in  order.  For  example,  in  the  word  "scratch" 
she  began  with  the  letters  "at,"  placing  before  them  in  succession  the  sounds 
of  r,  of  c,  and  of  s.  To  the  complete  sound  scrat,  was  finally  added  ch. 
Much  rapid  reading  with  its  constant  repetition  and  association  of  ideas  fixed 
the  words  in  mind.  Her  teacher  went  on  the  principle  that  written  and  spoken 
language  should  be  the  expression  of  thought  rather  than  its  object.  Reading 
treated  in  this  way  was  regarded  by  the  child  as  an  easy  and  insignificant  task. 

The  main  lessons  of  the  day,  never  more  than  one  and  one-half  hours  in 
length,  altogether,  were  arithmetic,  map  drawing,  botany,  and  geometry,  which 
was  taught  by  the  help  of  Spencer's  Inventional  Geometry  and  Hill's  First 
Lessons.  Throughout  all  her  instruction,  objects  were  constantly  kept  before 
her.  The  underlying  thought  of  the  plan  was  to  follow  the  course  of  nature. 
We  awake  at  birth  to  consciousness  of  motion,  space,  and  time.  Thus  geom- 
etry naturally  precedes  arithmetic    The  child  was  not  rated  as  unusually  bril- 


26  SCHOOL    WORK 

liant.  Carefully  arranged,  systematic  work,  however,  gave  striking  results, 
because  her  power  of  composition  was  excellent,  her  reading  was  intelligent, 
her  knowledge  of  the  arithmetic  covered  was  thorough,  her  powers  of  obser- 
vation were  developed  to  a  singular  degree,  and  without  forcing  her  at  all 
an  extraordinary  preparation  for  the  balance  of  her  education  had  been  given. 

No  study  of  unusual  educational  methods  could  be  considered  com- 
plete, unless  it  at  least  touched  the  private  schools.  Dr.  John  Dewey,  formerly 
of  Chicago  University,  now  of  Columbia,  established  a  school  in  Chicago  in 
which  some  good  results  were  obtained.  A  typical  day's  work  was  described 
by  a  visitor'  somewhat  as  follows :  The  children  came  to  school  without  books 
and  appeared  to  be  more  approximately  equipped  for  an  excursion  than  for 
the  ordinary  school  day.  At  the  usual  nine  o'clock  bell,  the  pupils  assembled 
in  their  various  rooms  with  not  more  than  ten  to  any  one  teacher.  Instead 
of  absolute  silence,  they  took  their  places  in  a  recognized  order  and  continued 
their  conversation  while  their  attendance  was  marked.  The  leader,  who  car- 
ried the  program  for  the  day,  led  the  way  to  an  assembly  in  the  gymnasium 
where  the  morning  exercises  were  largely  musical.  Class  songs  were  sung, 
composed  by  the  children  who  rendered  them.  The  classes  then  separated  to 
their  various  rooms  for  work.  One  group  of  ten-year-olds  was  setting  up 
electric  bells.  Another  group  was  taking  the  wool  from  a  sheepskin.  From 
this  they  shook  out  the  dirt,  then  spread  the  fibres  straight  and  wound  them 
on  a  stick  or  distaff.  From  the  full  distaffs  yarn  was  being  made,  using 
spindles  constructed  in  the  school  shop.  Around  the  room  were  primitive 
looms  operated  by  the  children  who  wove  small  blankets  from  their  own 
designs.  In  a  nearby  room  some  of  the  boys  were  setting  up  one  of  the  large 
old-fashioned  looms. 

It  was  the  middle  of  the  forenoon  before  a  class  was  found  which,  with 
its  Latin  recitation,  suggested  the  ordinary  school.  Another  class  was  dis- 
cussing the  comparative  greatness  of  George  Washington  and  John  Smith. 
Still  another  class,  using  a  relief  map,  was  trying  to  decide  whether  ions 
would  best  protect  the  English  colonies  from  French  aggression  on  the  north 
and  west.  In  all  the  classes  the  children  talked  with  an  unusual  freedom  of 
expression  and  ability  to  stick  to  the  point.  Reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic 
were  taught  while  the  child  was  ostensibly  doing  other  things.  For  example, 
a  class  in  primitive  life  had  spent  weeks  with  their  teacher  in  finding  out  how 
the  earliest  people  had  devised  their  simplest  weapons,  utensils,  and  skin 
clothing  in  their  cave  homes.  The  i)upils  had  become  so  interested  that  they 
begged  to  write  a  report.  As  none  could  write,  they  dictated  the  report 
which,  after  being  typewritten,  became  a  reading  lesson.  Classes  a  little 
farther  advanced  wrote  individual  reports. 

Arithmetic  was  brought  in  by  the  necessity  of  preparing  the  group 
luncherm.  which  was  served  at  noon  by  different  members  of  the  class  in 
turn.  In  a  well  equipped  kitchen,  each  child  cooked  one-third  of  a  cup  of 
oatmeal  in  two-thirds  of  a  cu])  of  water.  This  done,  he  calculated  how  much 
♦vater  he  would  need  for  half  a  cup,  and  then  one  child  was  delegated  to  find 


^See  Appendix  Im. 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY 


27 


out  and  cook  sufficient  for  the  whole  group,  while  others  did  similar  tasks. 
Thus  fractions  and  denominate  numbers  were  stepping  stones  and  not  objects 
of  themselves. 

There  was  no  thought  of  training  cooks  or  factory  hands.  It 
was  believed  that  there  was  an  educative  value  in  handling  raw  materials  and 
mental  training  in  reinventing  each  stage  of  their  manufacture.  One  group 
began  by  twisting  wool  in  their  fingers,  forming  threads  as  their  ancestors 
must  have  done.  The  stick  on  which  the  thread  was  wound  slipped  from  the 
fingers  of  one  and.  twirling  about,  suggested  the  idea  of  a  spindle.  In  like 
manner  they  had  evolved  spinning  wheel  and  loom,  the  teacher  always  present- 
ing in  simplest  form  the  exact  difficulty  and  the  solution  was  then  worked 
out  by  the  pupils.  These  interesting  operations  necessitated  reading,  writing, 
ciphering,  and  other  more  tedious  work  which  they  were  led  to  do  because 
of  the  desire  to  accomplish  what  seemed  to  them  of  real  value.  Furthermore, 
tiie  child  who  reduced  anything,  such  as  cloth,  to  its  first  elements  and  then 
reconstructed  it,  no  longer  thought  of  it  as  an  abstract  article,  originating  in  a 
store.  It  became  to  him  something  of  new  interest,  bringing  into  his  thought 
many  occupations  and  people.  In  this  way  he  learned  a  method  of  investiga- 
tion applicable  anywhere. 

President  Charles  F.  Thwing  took  a  peculiar  interest  in  the  education  of 
his  son.  He  recognized*  the  fact  that  by  associating  himself  with  a  score  of 
parents  who  had  the  same  problem,  they  could  employ  great  men  and  women 
as  tutors.  He  believed  that  education  should  include  the  promotion  of  health, 
the  combination  of  school  and  home,  the  best  of  teaching  and  the  training 
which  prepares  for  a  great  life.  As  may  be  supposed  from  this  declaration 
of  principles,  the  boys  spent  their  time  from  the  hours  of  eight  in  the  morn- 
ing till  six  at  night  under  the  best  physical  conditions  in  large,  well  warmed, 
well  ventilated  school  buildings  or  out  of  doors.  Their  play  in  the  afternoon, 
both  outside  and  in  the  gymnasium,  was  under  competent  direction  and  always 
ended  with  a  shower  bath  or  a  plunge  in  the  pool.  The  school  was  a  home 
school  in  the  sense  that  it  combined  home  life  with  independence.  It  also 
furnished  an  atmosphere  of  parental  affection  without  an  excess  of  its 
manifestation. 

An  important  part  of  any  course  of  study  is  its  plan  of  progress  through 
the  different  studies  offered  or,  in  other  words,  its  plan  of  promotions.  The 
so-called  Cambridge  plan,  in  which  the  course  of  study  is  arranged  in  four 
sections  of  one  year  each  and  also  in  six  sections  of  one  year  each,  is  notable. 
All  pupils  start  even  at  the  beginning.  Those  who  show  evidence  of  ability 
take  the  four  years'  course.  The  others  take  the  six  years'  course.  The  latter, 
at  the  end  of  three  years,  can  finish  in  two  more  by  going  more  rapidly  and 
the  former,  after  two  years  of  study,  can  go  in  with  the  pupils  who  have  just 
finished  their  third  year  at  a  slower  rate.  There  is,  therefore,  sufficient 
elasticity  to  accommodate  all  types  of  mind. 

Another  device  somewhat  similar  was  tried  in  California*.     About  ten 


*See  Appendix   In. 
*See  Appendix   lo. 


12 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7    8 

58 

195 

3^9 

74 

7S 

30 

I     5 

28  SCHOOL    WORK 

years  ago  the  various  grades  of  the  Santa  Barbara  schools  were  each  divided 
into  three  sections,  known  as  sections  A,  B,  C.  The  C  sections  did  the  work  of 
their  respective  grades  in  a  general  fashion.  The  B  sections  did  it  more 
intensively  and  the  A  sections  completed  it.  For  example,  in  map  geography 
the  beginners,  known  as  the  C  sections,  studied  only  the  most  important 
rivers,  cities,  etc.  The  B  sections  did  not  need  so  much  drill  and  would,  there- 
fore, cover  the  groimd  in  greater  detail.  The  A  section  would  complete  the 
work.  In  arithmetic,  the  C  sections  would  work  on  the  simplest  presentation 
of  the  topics.  The  other  sections  would  each  add  their  quota  to  this 
knowledge.  Only  the  835  pupils,  who  attended  the  entire  year,  were  con- 
sidered in  the  statistics  and  careful  records  were  kept  of  their  individual 
progress!  The  completion  of  three  sections  constituted  a  full  year's  work. 
Children  were  promoted  from  section  C  to  B  and  then  to  A  in  one  grade, 
and  then  to  sections  C  of  the  next  higher  grade,  and  so  on.  In  the  year 
covered  by  this  report  the  slowest  children  did  not  complete  the  work  of 
one  section.  The  brightest  children  finished  as  high  as  eight  sections  or 
two  and  two-thirds  years'  work.  The  following  table  shows  the  distribution 
of  the  835  children  according  to  the  number  of  sections  finished. 

Sections    o 

Number  of  children  in  each  section     28 

The  reader  will  observe  that  less  than  half  the  children  came  under  the  head- 
ing 'three  sections  "  If  we  combine  under  the  heading  "slow"  the  children 
who  completed  less  than  three  sections  and  call  those  "fast"  who  did  more 
than  three,  we  may  compare  each  section  with  the  average  as  follows: 

281  or  34  per  cent,  were  slow 

369  or  44  per  cent,  were  average 

185   or  22  per  cent,  were   fast. 

The  common  system  of  annual  promotions  would  have  done  injustice  to 
over  half,  since  they  would  have  been  retarded  or  unduly  pushed  Dy  a  course 
of  study  as  ordinarily  prepared.  Nearly  one-third  of  the  slow  children  (253 
in  all)  were  advanced  at  least  part  of  a  year's  work  instead  of  being  obliged 
to  go  over  the  whole  again.  The  principle  of  promoting  each  child,  when  he 
was  fit,  did  justice  to  all. 

The  following  study^  of  a  special  plan  of  promotion,  which  is  the  result  of 
over  two  years'  ol)servation,  experiment  and  adjustment,  is  oflFered  to  em- 
phasize the  fact  tliat  the  general  rit;i(l  plan  of  ]M-omotions  can  be  profitably 
modified.  It  also  shows  that  some  children  would  be  vastly  better  off,  \r  grvcn 
a  course  of  study  a(lai)ted  to  their  especial  needs.  For  some  time  it  had  been 
the  custom  in  one  of  the  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  schools  to  j^romote.  during  the  term, 
the  brightest  pupils  in  certain  grades,  provided  that  their  marks  were  high 
enough    to    show    that    they    distinctly    belonged    to    the    next    grade.      The 


'See  Appendix  Ip. 


IMP  ROT 'ED  COURSE  OP  STUDY  29 

plan  worked  well  and  the  pupils  thus  promoted  were  so  uniformly  successful 
in  their  studies  that  in  September,  1907,  it  was  determined  to  take  the  pupil 
W'ho  stood  the  highest  on  Oct.  ist,  in  each  class,  from  2a  to  8a  and  put  him 
into  the  grade  above.  The  group  system  had  just  been  introduced,  and  each 
class  was  divided  into  three  groups,  known  respectively  as  the  poorest,  the 
medium,  and  the  best.  The  teachers  who  received  these  specially  promoted 
pupils  treated  them  at  first  just  as  they  did  the  backward  ones,  giving  them 
the  same  assistance  and  personal  attention  and  reporting  frequently  on  the 
standing  of  the  sections  and  on  the  standing  of  the  specially  promoted  pupils. 
That  some  pupils  can  do  the  work  of  the  course  of  study  in  less  than 
the  prescribed  time  was  shown  by  this  experiment.  Out  of  the  13  boys  and  13 
girls  promoted  Oct.  i,  1907,  10  boys  and  12  girls  were  promoted  again  in 
February,  1908,  at  the  end  of  the  term.  Of  these  pupils,  who  were  not  again 
promoted  at  the  term's  close,  one  moved  away  and  two  failed.  Attention  is 
called  to  the  average  age  of  the  classes  and  of  the  specially  promoted  pupils. 
Six  boys  and  six  girls  were  older  than  the  average  age  of  their  own  classes, 
four  boys  were  the  same  age,  while  three  boys  and  seven  girls  were  younger. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  46  per  cent,  of  the  entire  number  were  older  than  their 
classes  and  were,  therefore,  entitled  to  this  opportunity,  while  the  others  were 
fully  competent  to  do  the  work  of  the  advanced  grade  and  thus  gain  a  halt 
year.  One  of  the  girls,  after  finishing  six  years  in  three,  graduated  nearly 
at  the  head  of  her  class  and  is  now  doing  excellent  work  in  the  high  school. 
Of  the  entire  number,  not  one  left  school.  This  is  in  striking  contrast  to  the 
large  per  cent,  of  pupils  who  leave  school  before  graduation  for  various  rea- 
sons. The  plan  has  the  merit  of  stimulating  to  their  best  endeavor  during 
the  first  month  of  the  term  the  great  majority  of  the  pupils,  for  each  one 
knows  that  he  has  a  chance  to  win  the  promotion.  The  plan,  on  the  large 
scale  here  indicated,  was  so  successful  that  it  was  regularly  followed  there- 
after. 

The  following  contribution  describes  an  improved  course  of  study  in 
concrete  form.  Such  a  course  will  preserve  the  child's  interest  and  carry  him 
along  over  the  work  with  no  loss  of  time  or  efifort.  It  will  acquaint  him 
with  realities  in  nature,  and  not  merely  with  the  contents  of  books.  What  he 
must  have  of  conventional  abstractions  will  be  given  incidentally  with 
activities  of  hand  and  eye.  By  thus  utilizing  native  interests,  the  expert 
teacher  will  gain  in  results.  Miss  Mary  Ailing  Aber  gives  an  account  of  the 
experiment  which  she  tried  in  Boston,  Mass.  The  aim  was  to  introduce  the 
child  at  once  to  science,  mathematics,  literature,  and  history  at  the  same  time, 
meeting  the  conventional  requirements  in  the  "Three  R's."  Her  story  is  told 
mainly  in  her  own  words.* 

The  experiment  began  with  nine  children  between  the  ages  of  five  and  a 
half  and  seven  years.  With  scales  and  measuring  rod  each  child  was  weighed 
and  measured,  while  such  questions  were  asked  as,  "Have  you  ever  been 
weighed  before?  When?  What  did  you  weigh  then?  How  does  your  weight 
now  compare  with  your  weight  then?"    The  shyest  children  forgot  that  they 


*See    Appendix    Iq. 


30  SCHOOL    WORK 

were  at  school,  and  chatted  freely  while  watching  and  comparing  results. 
By  questions,  as  to  why  a  present  weight  or  measure  was  greater  than  a 
former  one,  the  statement  "Children  grow"  was  obtained.  Questions  about  the 
causes  of  growth  led  to  the  statements  "Children  eat,"  "Children  sleep," 
"Children  play."  A  question,  as  to  whether  anything  besides  children  grows, 
started  a  talk  about  animals,  in  which  were  given  the  statement,  "Animals 
grow,  Animals  eat,  Animals  sleep.  Animals  play."  In  like  manner  similar 
statements  about  plants  were  obtained.  The  children  were  easily  led  from 
thinking  of  a  particular  child,  animal,  or  plant,  to  the  general  conception  and 
the  use  of  the  general  term.     This  was  the  first  lesson  in  natural  science. 

Recalling  the  first  general  conception  reached  in  this  science  lesson,  a 
child  was  asked,  "Nina,  what  did  you  say  children  do?"  "Children  grow," 
she  replied.  I  said,  "I  will  put  on  the  blackboard  something  that  means  what 
Nina  said,"  and  wrote  in  Spencerian  script,  "Children  grow."  In  response  to 
invitation,,  the  children  eagerly  gave  the  general  statements  gained  in  the 
science  lesson.  Each  was  written  on  the  board  and  read  by  the  child  who  gave 
it.  They  were  told  that  w'hat  they  had  said  and  what  I  had  written  were  sen- 
tences. Each  child  read  his  own  sentence  again.  This  w^as  the  first  reading 
lesson. 

One  by  one  each  child  stood  by  me  at  the  board,  repeated  his  sentence 
and  watched  while  it  was  w^ritten.  He  was  then  taught  to  hold  a  crayon,  and 
left  to  write  his  sentence  beneath  the  model.  When  a  first  attempt  was 
finished,  the  sentence  was  written  in  a  new  place,  and  thev:hild  repeatd  his 
efforts  at  copying.  In  this  manner  each  made  from  one  to  four  efforts,  each 
time  telling  what  his  copy  meant,  and  what  he  wished  his  effort  to  mean. 
None  of  this  work  was  erased  before  the  children  had  gone.  This  was  the 
first  writing  lesson. 

The  children  were  led  to  count  their  classmates,  their  sentences  on  the 
blackboards,  the  tables,  the  chairs,  and  the  other  objects  in  the  schoolroom. 
It  was  found  that  all  could  use  accurately  the  terms  one,  two,  three,  and  four 
and  the  symbols  i,  2,  3,  4  were  put  on  the  board  as  meaning  what  they  said, 
and  their  power  to  interpret  these  symbols  with  the  ideas  they  represent  was 
tested  in  various  ways.     This  was  the  first  number  lesson. 

The  children  were  shown  a  magnetic  needle  and  led  to  note  the  direction 
of  its  points  when  at  rest,  and  the  terms  north  and  south  were  given.  This 
was  the  first  geography  lesson. 

After  recess  each  child  read  his  sentence,  wrote  it  once,  and  then  the 
subject  of  the  science  lesson  was  pursued  further.  After  special  answers  to 
the  question,  "What  do  children  eat?"  the  general  statement  was  obtained, 
"Children  eat  plants  and  animals."  Similarly,  the  children  were  led  to  give, 
"Animals  cat  plants  and  animals."  Then  came  the  question,  "What  do 
plants  eat?"  One  suggested  the  sunshine,  another  the  rain,  another  the  air, 
others  the  ground  or  dirt  for  which  the  term  soil  was  given.  It  was  con- 
cluded that  rain,  air,  and  sunshine  help  ])lants  to  grow,  and  that  some  of  their 
food  must  come  from  the  soil,  and  the  general  statement  was  given,  "Plants 
get  food  from  the  soil."  Then  I  asked,  "Where  does  the  soil  come  from?" 
Before  wonder  had  given  way  to  opinion,  I  said,  "If  you  bring  luncheons  and 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  31 

extra  wraps  to-morrow,  we  will  go  to  the  country  and  try  to  find  out  where 
the  soil  comes  from."  A  poem  of  Longfellow's  was  read  and  the  children 
were  dismissed. 

On    the    second   morning   the    children    came    bounding    in    before    nine 
o'clock  eager  to  find  and  read  their  sentences,  which  each  did  without  hesi- 
lation,  and  until  nine  o'clock  they  amused  themselves  finding  and  reading  one 
another's    sentences,    teaching   and    challenging   in    charming   style.      A    few 
minutes  later  we  started  on  our  first  field  lesson  in  science.    An  hour's  street- 
car ride  brought  us  to  the  open  country.    We  went  into  a  small  field  where  a 
ledge  of  rock  presented  a  bold  front.     "Children,"  I  said,  "the  answer  to  our 
question  is  in  this  field.     I  wash  each  of  you  to  find  the  answer  for  himself,  to 
speak  to  no  one  till  he  thinks  he  has  found  it,  and  then  to  whisper  it  to  me." 
Soberly  they  turned  away  and  I  seated  myself  and  waited.    One  child  looked 
up  at  the  sky,  another  at  the  ground,  one  began  to  pull  over  some  gravel,  an- 
other to  dig  in  the  soil,  most  to  do  some  aimless  thing  because  they  knew 
not  what  to  do.   After  a  while  some  began  to  climb  the  ledge  and  to  feel  of  it. 
Suddenly  one  of  these  darted  to  me  and  breathlessly  whispered,  "I  think  the 
soil  comes  from  the  rock  over  there."     "Well,  don't  you  tell,"  I  whispered 
back.     The  sun  climbed  higher,  but  I  waited  until  the  last  child  brought  me 
that  whispered  reply.     Calling  them  together,  I  said:  "You  have  all  brought 
me  the  same  answer.     Why  do  you  think  soil  comes  from  this  rock?"     They 
turned  to  the  ledge,  picked  ofif  the  loose  exterior,  and  showed  me  the  same  in 
masses  at  the  base.     A  hammer  was  produced,  with  which  they  picked  away 
the  rock  until  it  became  too  hard  for  them  to  break.     I  then  said,  "We  see 
that  a  kind  of  soil  comes  from  this  rock,  but  what  kind  did  we  come  to  find?" 
"The  soil  from  which  plants  get  food,"  they  replied.     "How  do  you  know 
that  any  plants  get  food  from  this  soil  ?"  I  asked.     Instinctively  they  turned  to 
the  cliff,  where  grasses  and  weeds  were  growing  in  the  talus  at  its  base  and  in 
crevices  all  up  its   front  and  sides.     These  they  pulled  and  showed  me  the 
roots  with  the  rock  soil  clinging  to  them.     Referring  to  the  work  with  the 
hammer  and  comparing  what  they  picked  off  with  the  hard  mass  underneath, 
they  were  led  to  describe  individually  the  process  of  passing  from  rock  to 
soil,   and   finally   the   statement   was   obtained,   "Rock   decays   to   make   soil." 
After  luncheon  and  a  bit  of  play,  the  children  were  led  to  speak  of  rocks  and 
soils    seen   elsewhere.      Telling  the   children   to    shut   their   eyes    and   try    to 
picture  what  I  said,  I  told  them  that  the  earth  is  round  like  a  ball,  and  is  a 
mass  of  rock  with  a  little  soil  on  the  outside  of  it;  that  if  a  giant  could  take 
the  earth  in  his  hand,  he  might  peel  or  scrape  off  the  soil  as  we  take  a  carpet 
from  the  floor,  only  the  soil  would  seem  much  thinner  than  the  carpet,  because 
the  earth  is  so  big.     All  had  traveled  in  railway  trains,  and  had  such  im- 
pressions of  their  swiftness  that  this  illustration  was  used.    Suppose  we  start 
for  the  center  of  the  earth  in  a  train.     Traveling  day  and  night,  it  would 
take  nearly  a  week  to  reach  the  center,  and  another  week  to  reach  the  sur- 
face again;  and  all  day  while  we  watched  and  all  night  while  we  slept,  we 
should  be  rushing  through  the  rock;  and  if  we  came  out  through  the  thickest 
layer  of  soil  it  would  take  but  a  few  seconds  to  pass  through  it.    Then,  telling 
them  to  open   their   eyes,   I   took  a  peach  whose   rind   was  thin  and  peeled 


^2  SCHOOL    WORK 

smoothly  from  the  pulp,  spoke  of  the  giant  as  I  drew  off  the  rind,  and  told 
them  that  the  soil  is  thinner  on  the  rock  ball  of  earth  than  the  rind  on  a  peach. 
A  few  remaining  minutes  were  spent  in  observing  some  pine  trees  and  bar- 
berry bushes  growing  near. 

On  the  third  day,  after  reading  the  sentences  already  on  the  board,  of 
which  each  child  read  one  or  more  others  besides  his  own,  the  following 
sentences  were  easily  elicited:  "Children  eat  plants  and  animals.  Animals  eat 
plants  and  animals  Plants  get  food  from  the  soil.  The  soil  comes  from  the 
rock.  Rock  decays  to  make  soil."  These  were  written  on  the  blackboard, 
read,  copied  by  the  children  as  on  the  first  day.  This  was  the  natural  science, 
reading  and  writing  of  the  third  day.  In  number,  the  children  added  and  sub- 
tracted ones  by  making  groups  and  joining  and  leaving  one  another.  In 
geography,  the  first  lesson  was  recalled,  and  the  terms  east  and  west  associated 
with  the  appropriate  points. 

On  the  fourth  day,  after  the  children  had  retold  what  they  had  learned 
in  the  science  lessons,  they  were  shown  a  globe,  and  asked  to  imagine  one  as 
large  as  the  room  would  hold,  and  how  to  represent  the  earth,  they  must 
think  it  all  rock,  with  only  a  thin  layer  of  dust  to  represent  the  soil.  In 
geography  they  were  shown  a  map  of  the  school-room,  and  led  to  see  its 
relations  to  the  room,  and  the  relative  positions  of  objects  in  the  room  and 
on  the  map.  The  next  day,  on  another  map,  they  traced  their  route  to  the 
country,  and  located  the  field  and  ledge  of  rock  where  their  question  was 
answered.  In  the  fifth  day's  science  lesson,  the  children  were  led  to  speak  of 
rain  and  wind  as  washing  and  blowing  off  the  decayed  rock  and  exposing 
fresh  surfaces,  and  so  increasing  the  decay,  and  to  give  the  following  sum- 
mary :  "Without  decay  of  rocks  there  would  be  no  soil ;  if  no  soil,  no  plants, 
no  animals,  no  people."  In  reading  they  had  seventeen  sentences,  which  they 
read  without  hesitation  and  wrote  with  some  resemblance  to  the  originals. 
In  number,  none  failed  to  count  to  ten  and  to  add  and  subtract  ones  to  ten. 
Each  day  a  passage  of  poetry  was  read  at  the  opening  and  closing  of  the 
session,  little  songs  were  taught,  gentle  gymnastic  exercises  were  introduced 
between  the  lessons,  and  the  free  arm  movement  in  making  long  straight  lines 
was  added  to  their  lessons  in  writing.  This  work  of  the  first  week  is  given  to 
show  how  the  experiment  was  begun.  The  classes  entering  the  second  and 
third  years  were  started  with  dift'erent  sets  of  lessons,  but  on  substantially 
the  same  lines. 

Throughout  the  three  years  reading  was  taught  as  in  the  first  week. 
When  there  were  enough  sentences  to  make  a  four-page  leaflet  of  print,  they 
were  printed  and  read  in  that  form.  The  first  transfer  from  script  to 
print  was  made  at  the  end  of  six  weeks.  The  printed  leaflets  were  distributed, 
the  children  merely  glanced  at  them ;  as  yet  they  were  of  less  interest  than 
the  objects  usually  distributed,  I  said,  "Look  at  your  papers;  see,  if  there  is 
anything  on  them  that  you  have  seen  before."  Soon  one  hand  was  raised, 
then  another,  and  another.  "Rosamond,  what  have  you  found?"  "I  think 
one  of  my  sentences  is  here,  but  it  doesn't  look  just  like  the  one  on  the  board." 
In  less  than  ten  minutes,  by  comparison  of  script  and  print,  they  read  the 
whole  leaflet,  each  pointing  out  "my  sentences."     After  a   few  readings  the 


IMPROJ^ED  COURSE  OF  STUDY 


33 


children  took  the  leaflets  home,  tlie  sentences  were  erased  from  the  boards 
and  the  sanie  process  repeated  with  the  new  matter  which  was  accumulating. 
I  expected  the  children  to  forget  much  of  this  reading  and  was  surprised  to 
find  that  they  did  not.  One  morning  in  March,  a  visitor,  who  was  looking 
over  the  accumulated  leaflets,  asked  to  have  them  read.  1  told  her  that  they 
had  been  read  when  first  printed  only ;  but  she  urged  the  test  and  I  distributed 
them  as  they  happened  to  come.  The  first  leaflet  fell  to  the  youngest  girl, 
and  I  think  I  was  more  amazed  than  our  visitor  when  she  read  it  without 
faltering.  The  visitor  asked  her,  "What  does  palmately  veined  mean,  where 
you  read  The  leaf  of  the  cotton  plant  is  palmately  veined'?"  The  child 
replied,  'T  can  show  what  it  means  better  than  I  can  tell  it."  "Show  us,  then, 
Marjorie,"  I  said.  The  child  drew  on  the  board  a  fairly  correct  outline  of  a 
cotton  plant  leaf,  inserted  its  palmate  veining,  and  turning  to  the  visitor 
pointed  to  that  veining.  All  the  leaflets  were  read  without  help,  nothing  was 
forgotten,  neither  ideas  nor  words,  as  the  visitor  assured  herself  by  question- 


mp-. 


No  effort  was  made  to  use  a  special  vocabulary,  to  repeat  words,  to  avoid 
scientific  terms;  there  was  no  drill  in  phonics  or  spelling,  no  attention  was 
paid  to  isolated  words  as  words,  for  a  thought  was  the  basis  of  expression. 
In  the  science  lessons  the  minds  of  the  pupils  were  intent  on  getting  ideas 
and  on  expressing  them.  A  direction  to  look  or  think  again  usually  sufficed 
to  change  vague,  wordy  expressions  into  clear,  terse  ones,  by  giving  the  child 
clear  and  accurate  conceptions.  When  his  own  vocabulary  was  exhausted,  he 
was  promptly  helped  to  words  by  classmates  or  teacher,  the  effort  being  to 
use  the  speech  of  cultivated  people. 

At  first  the  reading  could,  by  no  means,  keep  pace  with  the  science 
lessons;  from  the  mass  of  expressions  obtained  some  were  selected  for  the 
reading  and  writing  matter.  With  increase  of  power  to  remember  forms  and 
combinations  of  letters  and  words,  the  number  of  sentences  was  increased, 
until  what  was  gained  in  the  science  lessons  was  reproduced  in  the  reading 
lessons.  This  increase  was  rapid.  From  the  first  field  lesson  two  sentences— 
eleven  words — only  could  be  taken,  while  a  field  lesson  near  the  close  of  the 
second  year,  yielded  ninety-seven  sentencs — over  eleven  hundred  words.  In 
the  former  the  sentences  were  written  on  the  board  and  read  every  day  for 
five  weeks ;  in  the  latter  they  were  taken  down  in  pencil,  by  the  teacher,  as  the 
children  gave  them,  arranged  according  to  topics,  printed,  and  presented  in 
the  printed  form  for  the  next  reading.  There  was  little  hesitation  in  that 
reading,  so  vivid  were  the  impressions  from  such  a  day  out-of-doors. 

During  the  first  year  a  little  reading  matter  was  drawn  from  lessons  in 
literature  and  history.  This  was  gradually  increased  during  the  second  and 
third  years.  Still  the  sentences  for  reading  were  taken  chiefly  from  the 
science  lessons,  because  there  could  be  more  certainty  of  the  child's  having 
accurate  and  well-defined  ideas  as  the  basis  of  each  expression,  and  the  sen- 
tences could  be  more  completely  their  own.  In  March  of  the  first  year  read- 
ing-books were  introduced.  At  the  first  trial  they  took  Swinton's  Easy  Steps 
for  Little  Feet,  and  in  twelve  minutes  read  a  page-and-a-half  story.  Of  their 
own   accord   they   sought   and   independently   obtained    from   the   context   the 


34  SCHOOL  WORK 

meaning  of  all  uut  two  of  the  unfamiliar  words,  and  gave  to  express  the 
meanings  either  che  exact  words  of  the  book  or  synonymoj.is  ones,  for  which 
those  of  the  book  were  substituted.  After  this  they  read  from  books  when- 
ever such  reading  could  be  related  to  their  other  work — not  much  otherwise. 
While  the  production  by  the  children  of  the  bulk  of  their  reading  matter  was 
a  prominent  feature,  this  w^as  not  the  object  of  the  experiment,  but  merely  an 
adjunct  to  the  chief  end  in  view-.  Nor  were  the  science  topics  selected  with 
reference  to  the  reading  matter,  but  on  their  own  merits,  mutual  reflections, 
and  the  capacities  of  the  children. 

As  soon  as  a  child's  writing  on  the  blackboard  could  be  read  by  his 
classmates? — copy  being  erased — he  began  to  write  at  his  desk  with  pencil  on 
unruled  paper,  the  copy  being  still  written  on  the  board.  When  all  had 
reached  this  stage,  concert  arm  and  finger  movements  were  taught.  During 
the  second  and  third  years,  the  forms  of  the  letters  and  combining  strokes 
were  analyzed,  and  each  drawn  on  a  large  scale  to  accurate  measurements. 

They  saw  no  misspelled  words  and  were  not  asked  to  spell  or  write 
isolated  words.  During  the  first  and  second  years  they  usually  had  a  copy 
from  which  they  w-rote,  in  the  third  year  they  wrote  original  exercises.  They 
were  told  to  ask.  when  not  sure  how  to  write  a  word.  The  word  was 
written  on  the  board ;  no  effort  was  made  to  have  them  think  how  a  word 
should  look,  no  matter  how  many  times  they  had  seen  it  written  and  printed. 

Work  in  the  natural  and  physical  sciences,  starting  with  broad  concep- 
tions, was  carried  forward  along  various  lines,  care  being  taken  to  show 
relations,  and  to  lead  the  children  to  regard  themselves  as  a  part  of  nature. 
In  mineralogy  and  geology,  the  paving,  building,  and  ornamental  stones  most 
used  in  Boston ;  the  ores  of  the  principal  metals,  and  their  products ;  graphite 
and  the  making  of  pencils ;  gypsum  and  halite,  were  studied,  each  child  getting 
his  knowledge  from  the  specimens  before  him.  Each  was  furnished  with  a 
testing  outfit,  including  what  a  field  geologist  commonly  carries,  except  the 
blowpipe  and  reagents  to  use  with  it ;  and  these  children  from  six  to  ten  soon 
learned  to  use  the  outfit  w^ith  as  much  skill  as  any  adults  whom  I  have  taught. 

In  physics,  lessons  were  given  on  extension  and  gravity ;  on  the  solid, 
liquid,  and  gaseous  states  of  matter ;  on  heat  as  the  force  producing  expansion 
and  contraction ;  on  the  evaporation,  condensation,  and  freezing  of  water, 
with  results  in  dew,  snow,  and  the  disintegration  of  rocks ;  on  movements  of 
air  as  agents  producing  wind  and  storms ;  on  the  thermometer ;  on  magnets 
and  two  of  their  uses.  In  chemistry,  lessons  were  given  on  air  and  its  com- 
position ;  on  combustion  and  its  products  on  iron  rust,  as  to  formation  and 
effects  on  iron;  on  CO=  as  an  ingredient  of  calcitc,  and  a  product  of  breath- 
ing; on  acids  as  tests  for  lime  rocks  containing  CO=;  on  the  distinction  between 
physical  and  chemical  changes.  In  astronomy,  a  few  lessons  were  given  on 
the  relations  of  sun  and  earth  as  causmg  day  and  night  and  the  seasons. 

Botany  was  pursued  in  the  fall  and  spring  months.  In  the  spring  the 
children  planted  a  window^  garden,  from  which  they  drew  plants  for  the 
study  of  germination  and  growth.  From  garden  and  wild  plants  they  studied 
buds  and  their  developments,  and  the  forms,  parts,  and  uses  of  some  leaves, 
flowers,  and   fruits.        A   series  of   lessons  on  plants  yielding  textile   fabrics 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  35 

and  the  manufactures  from  them  was  projected;  but,  owing  to  the  difficulty  of 
getting-  plants  in  proper  condition,  the  only  portion  given  was  that  on  the 
cotton  plants.  Fine  specimens  of  these  were  received  from  Georgia,  which 
kept  fresh  nearly  two  weeks,  and  showed  all  stages,  from  flower  bud  to 
open  boll  of  cotton  fiber.  No  work  in'  zoology  was  done,  save  the  giving 
of  a  few  lessons  on  silkworms  and  sheep,  as  yielding  silk  and  wool.  In 
physiology,  lessons  were  given  on  the  general  parts  of  the  body;  on  tlie 
joints,  skin,  hair,  nails,  and  teeth ;  on  the  chest  and  the  process  of  breathing 
and  its  products;  on  food  and  digestion — all  with  reference  to  the  care  of  the 
body,  keeping  the  lungs  from  disease,  and  the  true  object  of  taking  food. 
Geography  was  connected  with  science,  history,  and  literature — the  original 
habitat  and  migrations  of  rocks  and  plants,  and  the  location  of  events  leading 
to  imaginary  journeys.  The  forms  of  water  and  land,  and  a  demonstration 
of  the  shape  of  the  earth  by  the  positions  and  appearances  of  vessels  at  sea, 
were  gained  in  lessons  to  the  country  and  seashore.  Boston  and  its  sur- 
rounding townships  were  studied  in  connection  with  lessons  in  local  history. 
Maps,  globes,  compass,  and  modeling  clay  were  used  throughout  the  course. 

While  the  w'ork  in  mathematics  was  not  so  fully  developed  on  new  lines 
as  in  other  subjects,  some  work  done  in  the  first  year  may  be  of  interest  to 
the  reader.  In  a  field  lesson  of  the  second  week,  some  distinguishing  features 
of  the  apple,  beech,  pitch  and  white  pine  trees  were  noted  and  branches  ob- 
tained. These  branches  furnished  material  for  many  days'  number  lessons. 
Apple  leaves  with  their  two  stipules,  pitch-pine  sheaths  with  their  three 
needles,  beechnut  exocarps  with  their  four  sections,  and  white  pine  sheaths 
with  their  five  needles,  were  used  by  the  children  in  constructing  concrete 
number  tables,  which — picking  up  the  objects — they  recited  as  follows:  "In 
one  sheath  of  white  pine  are  five  needles ;  in  two  sheaths  of  white  pine  are  two 
times  five  needles,"  etc.  When  the  concrete  table  was  familiar,  the  same 
number  relations  were  written  on  the  blackboard  with  figures  and  symbols. 
In  this  manner  the  children  learned  the  four  classes  of  tables  as  far  as  sixes. 
Meanwhile  the  study  of  geometrical  forms  and  the  plant  lessons  gave  illustra- 
tion and  review.  In  January,  work  with  money  was  begun,  and  continued 
through  the  remainder  of  the  year ;  but  other  opportunities  to  give  practice 
in  number  were  utilized — as,  the  six  faces  of  the  halite  crystal,  the  six  stamens 
of  the  tulip,  etc.  To  get  unworn  coins  we  sent  to  the  Philadelphia  mint.  In 
two  lessons  the  children  learned  the  names  and  values  of  one  copper,  two 
nickel,  four  silver,  and  six  gold  pieces;  in  the  third,  by  placing  piles  of  coin 
side  by  side,  they  constructed  and  learned  the  table : 

Two  silver  half-dollars  equal  one  gold  or  silver  dollar. 

Four  silver  quarter-dollars  equal  one  gold  or  silver  dollar. 

Ten  silver  dimes  equal  one  gold  or  silver  dollar. 

Twenty  nickel  pieces  equal  one  gold  or  silver  dollar. 

One  hundred  copper  pennies  equal  one  gold  or  silver  dollar. 

On  the  following  day  a  new  concrete  table  was  prepared,  and  the  dollar 
sign,  figures,  symbols,  and  decimal  point  were  substituted  for  the  words  in 
the  written  work.  The  relative  values  of  the  lower  denominations  to  one 
another    were    taught,    and    tables    constructed    and    written.      The    different 


5^  SCHOOL  WORK 

denominations  of  paper  money  up  to  the  fifty  dollar  bill  were  added  to  the 
coins;  and  this  money — about  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars — was  used  in 
business  transactions,  which  gave  review  of  the  number  relations  already 
learned,  and  taught  those  necessary  to  the  construction  and  comprehension  of 
the  remaining  tables.  At  the  end  of  eight  months  the  children  could  use  and 
write  numbers  to  one  hundred  and  fifty,  and  the  signs  +,  — ,  x,  -f-,  =,  $  and 
.  (decimal  point) ;  and  understood  the  values  of  position  in  notation  to  three 
places  to  the  left  and  two  to  the  right  of  a  decimal  point.  Also,  in  the  oral 
work  with  money,  they  readily  used  the  fractions  one-half,  one-fourth,  one- 
tenth,  one-twentieth  and  one-hundredth ;  and  most  of  them  could  write 
from  memory  the  usual  tables  from  one  to  twelve.  In  this  first  year  no  effort 
was  made  to  do  a  defined  kind  or  amount  of  work.  The  children  spent  from 
twenty  to  thirty  minutes  each  day  at  some  mathematical  work,  but  progress 
and  variety  depended  on  their  interest  and  capacities.  A  visitor  who  had 
spent  forty  years  in  teaching  sat  through  one  of  these  primary  sessions.  He 
expressed  pleasure  and  surprise  at  the  work  of  the  children  in  science,  read- 
ing, and  other  branches,  but  was  incredulous,  at  first,  about  the  work  in 
number  with  the  money  at  their  desks,  and  the  written  work  in  figures  and 
signs  at  the  blackboards.  He  went  around  among  the  children,  tested  them, 
and  watched  to  see  if  there  w^ere  not  some  trick  of  parrot-like  performance. 
Finally,  convinced  of  the  genuine  comprehension  of  what  they  were  doing,  by 
these  children  of  six  and  seven,  he  said,  "I  should  not  have  believed  it  on  the 
statement  of  any  man  or  woman  whom  I  have  known,  but  I  have  seen  it  with 
my  own  eyes." 

It  is  a  matter  of  regret  to  me  that  growing  burdens  of  care  forbade  the 
development  of  the  number  work  during  the  second  and  third  years  on  the 
lines  laid  down  in  the  first  year.  To  spend  half  an  hour  to  an  hour  a  day  for 
ten  years  at  mathematics  with  no  better  results  than  the  average  boy  and  girl 
of  sixteen  can  show,  looks  like  a  great  waste  of  time  and  energy.  The  cause 
may  be  twofold :  First,  that  the  beginning  work  is  made  silly  by  its  simplicity, 
and  insipid  by  being  related  to  nothing  interesting;  second,  that  processes 
like  the  subtraction  of  large  numbers  and  long  division  are  pressed  upon 
the  child  before  his  powers  are  equal  to  its  comprehension. 

The  last  fifteen  minutes  of  each  day  were  devoted  to  literature.  Selec- 
tions with  biography  and  anecdote  constituted  the  materials  for  these  les- 
sons. Advantage  was  taken  of  birthdays,  anniversaries,  and  natural  pheno- 
mena. Storms  furnished  the  accompaniments  to  Lowell's  The  First  Snow 
Fall,  portions  of  Whittier's  Snowbound,  Longfellow's  Rainy  Day,  Bryant's 
Rain,  Shelley's  Cloud,  etc.  Flowers  brought  by  the  children  were  related 
to  readings  from  Burns,  Wordsworth,  Emerson,  Lowell,  Bryant,  Whittier.  and 
Longfellow.  Emerson's  Rhodora  was  committed  to  memory  and  recited,  a 
cluster  of  the  purple  blossoms  being  in  sight.  Selections  were  made  with 
primary  reference  to  their  value.  Biography  was  usually  employed  to  heighten 
interest  in  literature,  for  its  own  sake  when  embodying  noble  sentiments,  as 
Scott's  struggle  against  debt.  Sidney's  gift  of  water  to  the  soldier.  By  such 
tales  of  heroic  effort  and  action  it  was  hoped  to  develop  courage,  honor,  and 
devotion  to  duty. 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  37 

Aside  from  clear  language  in  narration,  accompanied  by  pictures  of  per- 
sons and  places,  and  such  reading  as  expresses  the  rhythms  and  meaning,  no 
effort  was  made  to  have  biography  or  literature  understood.  Many  children 
have  such  an  appreciation  of  melody  that  a  fine  poem,  well  read,  will  hold 
their  attention.  Just  before  Christmas  in  our  first  year,  I  read  a  portion  of 
]\Iilton's  Hymn  on  the  Nativity,  and  said,  "I  hope  you  will,  some  day,  read 
the  whole  and  like  it."  "Please  read  it  all  now,"  said  several  voices.  So  it 
was  all  read  and  the  children  listened  intently.  Milton's  picture  was  put  away, 
and  nothing  said  of  him  for  a  year.  When  his  picture  was  again  put  on  the 
easel,  a  hand  was  at  once  raised.  ''What  is  it,  Tracy?"  "I  know  who  that 
is."  ''Who?"  "Mr.  John  Milton."  "What  do  you  remember  about  him?" 
"He  gave  his  eyes  for  liberty,"  an  expression  which,  so  far  as  my  knowledge 
of  the  child  went,  he  had  not  heard  from  any  one,  but  was  his  own  terse  sum- 
ming up  of  the  narrative  he  had  heard  a  year  before,  when  barely  six  years 
old.  Most  children  have  such  an  appreciation  of  justice  and  heroism  that 
they  will  even  walk  more  erectly  after  listening  to  a  tale  involving  these  quali- 
ties. I  shall  not  forget,  how  gravely  and  proudly  fifty  children  withdrew  from 
the  school  room  after  listening  to  the  story  of  Sidney's  death.  An  unspoiled 
child  has  usually  a  vivid  imagination ;  and  it  is  as  pernicious  to  meddle  with 
the  formation  of  his  mental  pictures  in  literature  as  it  is  in  science  lessons  to 
keep  telling  him  that  which  he  can  get  from  his  specimens.  The  child's  mind 
should  be  brought  into  direct  contact  with  the  realities  in  history  and  litera- 
ture, and  left  to  work  at  them  with  the  least  possible  interference  and  g'uid- 
ance.  If  a  child  attempted  to  repeat  a  quotation  or  fact,  accuracy  was  re- 
quired, but  he  was  not  urged  to  remember.  Much  in  the  literature  lessons  was 
above  the  child's  comprehension;  but  it  was  thought  well  for  each  child  to 
feel  a  breath  from  the  mountains  above  and  beyond,  a  breath  whose  coolness 
and  fragrance  he  might  feel  without  analysis  or  comprehension  of  its  quali- 
ties. To  have  felt  was  enough.  So  we  paid  no  attention  to  ordinary  poems 
and  tales  for  little  children,  but  introduced  the  children  at  once  to  Long- 
fellow and  Emerson,  Wordsworth  and   Scott,   Milton  and   Shakespeare. 

There  was  regular  study  of  history  for  each  year.  Copies  of  early  and 
late  maps  of  Boston  w^ere  given  to  each  child.  The  older  one  was  drawn  on 
transparent  paper,  so  as  to  be  laid  over  the  later  one  and  show  directly  the 
changes  and  extensions  into  river  and  harbor.  Colored  crayon  maps  and 
pictures  were  used  to  illustrate  the  historical  narrative.  These  narratives 
were  drawn  mostly  from  local  events,  as  the  settlement  of  Boston,  with  cer- 
tain old  Boston  worthies  as  centers,  about  whom  incidents  were  grouped, 
the  beginning  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  with  a  visit  to  the  Washington  elm  at 
Cambridge ;  some  incidents  of  slavery  and  the  Civil  War  connected  with  Gar- 
rison. Extracts  from  diaries,  letters,  etc.,  were  printed  on  leaflets  and  read 
by  the  children,  who  drew  their  own  inferences.  These  readings  from  original 
sources  were  mostly  confined  to  the  third  and  fourth  classes  as  the  language 
used  was  too  dif=flcult  for  children  of  the  first  two  years.  Sometimes  gratifying 
volunteer  work  was  done ;  as  when  a  boy  of  eight  learned  the  whole  of-  Paul 
Revere's  Ride  and  recited  it  standing  at  the  blackboard  and  tracing  on  a 
colored  map  of  Boston  and  surrounding  townships  the  route  taken  by  the 


38  SCHOOL  WORK 

rider.  This  work  in  history  was  done  by  ^Nliss  Nina  jMoore  (Mrs.  F.  B.  Tif- 
fany) who  developed  it  with  such  skill  as  to  fascinate  the  children.  (See 
her  books  Pilgrims  and  Puritans,  and  From  Colony  to  Commonwealth.) 

The  industrial  part  of  the  experiment  was  started  at  the  beginning  ot 
the  third  year.  Each  child  was  provided  with  a  bench  and  ten  tools — ruler, 
try  square,  scratch  awl,  saw,  vise,  plane,  chisel,  brad  awl,  hammer,  nail  set. 
The  children  of  the  two  younger  classes  made  a  box  with  the  cover  hinged  on 
with  strips  of  leather;  those  of  the  two  older,  a  case  with  shelves  fitting  into 
grooves.  The  work  was  divided  into  steps,  each  of  which  was  mastered  be- 
fore the  next  was  tried.  All  the  children  began  the  use  of  a  ruler  in 
measurements  to  an  eighth  of  an  inch.  The  try  square  came  next.  As  soon  as 
a  true  line  was  drawn,  the  saw  was  used  to  divide  the  board.  After  the  first 
day,  no  tw^o  children  were  together,  each  one's  position  depending  upon  his 
own  results.  The  third  step  (the  cross  cut  saw)  detained  most  of  the  children 
several  weeks;  a  true  cut  with  its  face  at  right  angles  to  each  face  of  the  board 
was  required.  This  the  children  tested  for  themselves.  Often  during  the  first 
work  with  saws,  a  child  w^ould  ask  "Will  that  do?"  "Test  it,"  was  the  reply. 
Reluctantly,  the  child  applied  the  test  and  renewed  his  courage  as  best  he 
could.  After  a  time  the  desire  to  use  a  new  tool  and  to  get  on  as  some  other 
child  did,  gave  way  to  desire  for  perfection.  This  brings  me  to  the  chief  end 
of  the  work,  not  skill  in  handicrafts  nor  any  finished  products,  but  to  put  be- 
fore the  children  concrete  examples  of  the  true  and  the  false,  in  such  a 
manner  that  the  child  himself  should  judge  his  own  work  by  some  unvarying 
standard.  As  an  instance  of  the  moral  effects :  One  of  the  older  boys  was 
the  first  to  finish  the  shelves  and  both  sides  of  his  case  all  but  one  groove. 
The  excitement  of  this  eminence  dizzied  him,  and  that  groove  was  a  failure 
for  being  too  wide  it  left  an  ugly  crack  above  the  shelf.  No  one  was  more 
sensitive  to  that  ugliness  than  he ;  but  the  struggle  between  his  desire  for 
perfection  and  the  fancied  humiliation  of  making  another  side  and  letting 
some  other  child  be  the  first  to  complete  a  case  went  on  for  some  time.  Finally, 
with  a  manly  efifort  to  keep  the  tears  from  falling,  he  laid  the  faulty  side 
among  the  failures  and  began  again.  To  give  up  the  work  of  many  days  and 
the  prospect  of  coming  out  ahead  was  to  win  a  great  battle  not  for  himself 
alone,  but  for  his  comrades.  For  use,  the  rejected  side  was  almost  as  good 
as  perfection  itself,  but  the  boy's  mind  yielded  obedience  to  ideals  of  truth 
and  beauty.  Such  yielding  of  lower  motives  to  higher  ones,  such  discipline 
of  patience  and  judgment  as  these  lessons  gave,  were  not  reached  in  any 
other  line  of  work. 

In  our  experiment  there  was  one  session  a  day  for  eight  months.  Less 
than  five  hours  a  week  were  given  to  the  science  lessons  and  the  reading 
drawn  from  them.  The  saving  of  time  in  other  studies  was  almost  equally 
great;  and  besides  the  large  body  of  superior  knowledge  opened  to  the 
children,  the  ordinary  proficiency  in  all  subjects  commonly  taught  in  pri- 
mary schools  was  generally  reached.  This  demonstrates  the  fallacy  of  the 
current  opinion  that  children  cannot  be  taught  science,  literature  and  history, 
and  at  the  same  time  master  the  usual  three  R's. 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OP  STUDY  39 

Among  the  effects  may  be  mentioned : 

1.  The  children  learned  to  ask  serious  questions.  In  a  lesson  on  clouds 
and  rain,  Emma  asked,  "Why  is  the  rain  not  salt,  if  most  of  the  cloud  vapor 
comes  from  the  ocean?"  She  was  told  to  dissolve  a  certain  amount  of  salt, 
to  evaporate  the  solution  over  a  fire,  and  note  the  results.  On  the  following 
day  she  reported  that  the  same  amount  of  salt  was  left  after  the  evaporation 
as  she  had  first  used,  and  gave  as  her  conclusion  that  ocean-water  in  evapo- 
rating leaves  all  its  salt  behind ;  and  the  youngest  boy  added,  "Then  only 
pure  water  can  float  up  into  the  blue  sky." 

2.  They  learned  that  opinion  without  knowledge  is  folly.  In  planting 
a  window  garden,  they  put  seeds  in  pots  of  earth;  I,  between  wet  blotting 
papers.  Their  decided  opinion  was  that  my  seeds  would  not  grow.  A  week 
later  they  were  eager  to  give  this  sentence,  "The  seeds  in  Miss  Alling's 
garden  did  grow." 

3.  They  became  fond  of  mental  activity.  They  were  nor  marked,  for- 
mally examined,  hurried,  nor  required  to  do  a  certain  amount  of  definite 
work  in  a  definite  time.  This  freedom  and  leisure  transformed  their  first 
laborious,  timid  thinking  into  a  delight,  which  they  entered  upon  spontane- 
ously and  fearlessly  as  upon  their  outdoor  physical  games. 

4.  Their  habits  of  thinking  improved.  At  first  they  showed  but  a  super- 
ficial interest  in  the  objects  studied,  and  much  questioning  was  needed  to 
direct  and  hold  their  attention ;  later,  they  voluntarily  seized  upon  the  marked 
features  of  objects  and  phenomena,  and  pursued  them  until  practically  ex- 
hausted. We  did  not  flit  hither  and  thither,  giving  the  children  new  objects 
of  study  each  day,  but  kept  them  at  work  upon  one  so  long  as  it  could  yield 
anything  within  their  comprehension.  As  an  instance,  successive  lessons  on 
the  cotton  plant  were  given  for  three  weeks. 

5.  Their  perceptions  became  almost  unerring.  At  the  Museum  of  the 
Boston  Society  of  Natural  History,  one  day  Katherine  exclaimed,  as  we 
rapidly  passed  a  case  of  minerals,  "There's  some  graphite."  Turning  and 
seeing  some  whitish  specimens,  I  said,  "Oh,  no;  have  you  forgotten  how 
graphite  looks?"  The  child  insisted,  and  we  turned  back  to  the  case.  Sure 
enough,  on  one  shelf  the  white  rocks  contained  grains  and  threads  of  graph- 
ite, which  fact  the  child  had  gathered  in  one  rapid  glance. 

6.  Memory  became  active  and  generally  true.  It  was  aimed  to  pursue 
all  things  in  order,  with  regard  to  natural  relations  and  associations;  beyond 
this  the  cultivation  of  memory  was  committed  to  the  qualities  of  the  ideas 
presented.  The  result  seemed  to  prove  that  memory  is  retentive  in  propor- 
tion to  the  activity  and  concentration  of  the  whole  consciousness,  and  that 
this  is  proportioned  to  the  interest  of  the  subject  matter. 

7.  Imagination  was  vivid  and  healthy,  producing  clear  reproduction,  apt 
illustration,  sometimes  witty  caricature,  and  occasionally  thought  and  expres- 
sion delicate  and  lovely  enough  to  be  worthy  the  envy  of  grown-up  literati. 

8.  There  was  a  beginning  made  in  the  habits  of  independent  examination 
of  any  matter,  of  honestly  expressing  the  results  of  such  examination,  and 
stoutly  maintaining  one's  own  ideas  until  convinced  of  error,  and  then  of 
readiness  to  adopt  and  defend  the  new,  however  opposed  to  the  old.  These 
habits  lead  to  mental  rectitude,  robustness,  and  magnanimity,  which  qualities 
confer  the  power  of  discriminating  values ;  for  pride  of  opinion  gives  blind- 


40  SCHOOL  WORK 

9.  In  waiting  for  nature  to  answer  questions — sometimes  they  waited 
three  weeks  or  more — and  in  continual  contact  with  her  regularity  and  de- 
pendence on  conditions,  they  gained  their  first  dim  conceptions  of  what  law 
means,  and  of  the  values  of  patience  and  self-control,  and  of  realities  as 
opposed  to  shams.  Finding  in  Nature  mysteries  which  the  wisest  have  not 
explained,  a  half-conscious  reverence  stole  upon  them — the  beginnings  ot 
true  spiritual  growth. 

At  first  the  experiment  called  forth  much  criticism.  At  home  the  chil- 
dren told  about  rocks  and  plants,  and  related  stories  from  history  and  litera- 
ture, but  said  little  about  reading  and  writing.  Parents  came  to  see,  and 
universally  condemned  the  method.  One  mother  said,  "My  daughter  will 
study  geology  and  literature  when  the  proper  age  comes ;  I  wish  her  now 
to  learn  reading  and  writing,  and  have  simple  lessons  in  arithmetic  and 
geography."  But  she  yielded  to  the  child's  entreaties,  and  allowed  her  to 
be  experimented  upon.  Later,  this  mother  visited  the  department  to  express 
her  wonder  and  satisfaction  at  her  daughter's  progress  in  reading,  writing, 
and  number.  A  father,  after  visiting  the  department,  said,  "My  boy  isn't 
learning  anything;  he's  having  a  twaddle  of  experiments."  Three  months 
afterward  he  said,  "My  boy's  whole  attitude  of  mind  is  changed;  he  looks 
at  the  world  with  new  eyes,  and  is  also  progressing  rapidly  in  the  studies 
common  to  children  of  his  age." 

A  criticism  frequently  met  was  that  the  vocabulary  was  too  difficult, 
and,  being  largely  scientific  and  technical,  could  not  fit  children  to  read 
children's  books.  Experience  proved  the  contrary.  Reading  for  ideas,  the 
children  were  not  deterred  by  a  few  unfamiliar  words.  In  reading  stories 
in  books,  they  could  usually  get  the  principal  ideas ;  and  to  infer  the  meaning 
of  the  unknown  forms  had  much  novelty  and  interest.  It  was  also  objected 
that  the  ideas  themselves  were  too  difficult,  and  could  not  possibly  be  com- 
prehended by  the  children.  In  a  language  lesson  of  the  second  year,  Frank 
gave  the  sentence,  "The  soil  is  thin."  A  visitor  asked,  "Did  you  ever  see  a 
well  dug?"  "Oh.  yes;  at  my  grandfather's,  last  summer."  "Was  the  soil 
there  thick  or  thin?"  "Thick,"  "How  thick?"  Looking  from  the  floor  to 
the  ceiling,  "Thicker  than  from  this  floor  to  the  ceiling."  "Then  what  do 
you  mean  by  saying  that  the  soil  is  thin?"  was  asked  in  a  mocking,  discon- 
certing tone.  Frank  dropped  his  eyes  in  thought ;  after  a  moment  he  said,  "1 
mean  it  is  thin  when  you  think  of  all  the  way  down  to  the  center  of  the 
earth."  This  boy  entered  before  he  was  six  years  old,  and  was  at  this  time 
barely  seven. 

Teachers  who  visited  this  department  said.  "You  have  a  comparatively 
small  number  of  children  from  cultivated  families ;  even  similar  results  could 
not  be  obtained  in  the  large,  miscellaneous  public-school  classes."  This  could 
be  met,  then,  by  the  statement  that  mind  has  everywhere  the  same  elemental 
possibilities,  and  must  yield  similar  results  for  the  same  influence,  although 
the  time  required  might  be  much  lengthened.  This  criticism  has  now  been 
answered  in  part  by  the  results  of  a  trial  made  in  the  public  schools  of 
Englewood,  111.,  an  account  of  which  will  appear  in  a  subsequent  paper. 

The  few  scientists  who  knew  of  the  experiment  looked  on  with  favor. 
"It  is  the  ideal  way,"  said  one.     "A  realization  of  my  dreams."  said  another. 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  41' 

An  eminent  leader  in  educational  affairs  in  this  country  objected  that  the 
great  majority  of  our  primary  school  teachers  could  not  follow  in  the  same 
line,  because  lacking  the  requisite  body  of  knowledge.  When  courses  of 
study  for  lower  schools  are  made  out  by  eminent  specialists,  with  a  view 
to  putting  into  the  hands  of  children  the  beginnings  of  their  own  lines  of 
research,  and  when  school  authorities  provide  courses  of  lectures  and  other 
means  of  furnishing  to  teachers  the  necessary  body  of  knowledge,  I  think 
teachers  will,  as  a  whole,  be  quick  to  respond  to  the  demand  and  the  oppor- 
tunity—as a  release  from  the  belittling  effects  of  their  present  monotonous 
drudgery  with  trivial  ideas,  if  for  no  higher  motive. 

In  conclusion,  the  reader  may  wish  to  ask,  "Was  the  experiment,  after 
all,  a  success?"  I  answer,  "As  a  demonstration  of  the  possibility  and  value 
of  introducing  httle  children  to  real  learning,  yes;  as  a  realization  of  my 
ideals,  no."  I  was  conscious  that  there  was  much  that  was  superficial  in 
the  work,  and  that,  in  striving  to  avoid  shadows  and  to  grasp  the  real  sub- 
stance of  education,  I  often  grasped  but  another  and  a  finer  sort  of  shadow. 
]\Iay  some  other  teacher,  having  greater  fitness  for  the  work,  and  a  longer 
opportunity  for  effort,  reach  the  goal  for  which  I  started.  The  instruction, 
such  an  one  could  give  about  primary  education,  is  needed  all  over  our 
beloved  land. 

The  public  school  efforts  at  the  solution  of  this  problem  have  brought 
out  attempts  and  plans  which  can  be  classified  under  the  following  heads: 

I.  The  Cambridge  Plan.— In  this  scheme,  the  high-school  course  of  study 
IS  laid  out  in  two  ways,  one  covering  four  years  of  time,  and  the  other 
covering  six.  Pupils  about  to  enter  the  high  school  are  divided  into  two 
groups— the  bright  and  the  slow.  The  bright  pupils  are  put  into  the  four 
years'  course,  and  the  slow  ones  into  the  six  years'  course.  For  a  variety 
of  reasons,  it  often  happens  that  so-called  bright  pupils  at  the  end  of  two 
years  will  find  themselves  overworked.  These  pupils  are  then  put  into  the 
longer  course  with  pupils  who  are  just  finishing  their  third  year.  Many  of 
the  slow  pupils  find  that  the  time  allowed  for  the  six  years'  course  is  more 
than  they  need,  and  they  are  very  glad  of  the  opportunity  to  finish  their 
course  in  two  years  instead  of  in  three.  Thus,  the  first-mentioned  children 
will  finish  in  five  years  a  course  which  they  originally  planned  to  finish  in 
four  years.  The  others  will  complete  in  five  years  a  course  in  which  they 
had  expected  to  spend  six.  All  types  of  physical  vigor  are  thus  cared  for, 
and  no  one  is  obliged  to  drop  out  of  school  from  overwork. 

2.  The  Elizabeth,  N.  J.,  Plan.— In  this  system,  the  classes  are  so  graded 
that  instead  of  being  a  whole  term  or  a  year  apart  they  are  graded  a  month 
apart,  the  most  talented  children  being  in  the  most  advanced  class.  Pupils 
who  are  competent  to  do  the  work  of  a  grade  in  less  than  the  time  allotted, 
which  is  usually  a  half  year,  are  encouraged  to  work  ahead  of  their  class- 
mates. As  soon  as  they  are  two  weeks  ahead,  they  are  put  into  the  class 
next  above  to  which  they  speedily  catch  up.  If  they  find  themselves  able, 
they  may  again  work  on  ahead  and  repeat  the  process  of  promotion  as  often 
as  they  please.  The  advantage  of  this  plan  is  that  the  pupil  will  at  no  time 
find  the  new  class  more  than  two  weeks  ahead,  and  the  hiatuses  caused  by 
jumps  that  involve  a  half  year  or  more  are  unknown. 


42  SCHOOL  WORK 

3.  The  Pueblo  Plan. — Here  the  children  receive  individual  attention  from 
their  teachers  instead  of  class  instruction.  This  individual  work  presumably 
enables  the  pupils  to  progress  much  more  rapidly  than  they  otherwise  would, 
and  they  are  promoted  at  any  time. 

4.  The  Batavia  Plan. — Under  this  plan  large  class  rooms  and  very  large 
classes  are  the  rule.  Two  teachers  are  put  in  charge  of  each  room.  One 
teaches  the  class  as  a  whole,  while  the  other  gives  attention  to  the  backward 
pupils.  The  object  of  this  plan  is  to  promote  more  than  the  usual  eighty 
per  cent.,  and  the  individual  work  with  the  backward  children  is  said  to 
accomplish  this  result. 

5.  Departmental  Teaching. — Each  teacher  is  put  in  charge  of  certain 
subjects  of  which  she  has  made  a  special  study,  and  which  she  is  especially 
well  qualified  to  teach.  The  pupils  pass  from  teacher  to  teacher,  completing 
the  cycle  once  a  week.  This  plan  is  largely  followed  in  the  seventh  and  the 
eighth  years  of  the  elementary  schools  and  in  the  high  schools. 

6.  Group  Teaching. — Each  class  is  divided  into  two  or  three  groups  in 
the  leading  subjects  of  the  course.  The  foremost  group  is  pushed  ahead 
at  full  speed,  studying  intensively  the  work  of  the  grade.  The  others  follow 
as  best  they  can,  the  smaller  numbers  giving  the  teacher  time  for  more 
personal  attention.     A  fuller  discussion  is  given  later. 

7.  Preacademic  Schools. — In  this  plant,  all  the  seventh  and  eighth  year 
classes  of  all  the  schools  in  a  given  neighborhood  are  organized  as  one  sepa- 
rate school  run  on  the  departmental  plan.  The  chief  advantage  herein  is  that 
the  smaller  classes  of  the  several  schools  are  combined  into  fewer  large  classes 
in  the  one  school.  The  csprit-dc-corps  which  comes  to  a  large  school  com- 
posed wholly  of  rather  mature  pupils  will  hardly  compensate  for  tlie  loss 
which  comes  from  the  increased  numbers  given  to  each  teacher.  Further- 
more, such  a  division  deprives  the  school  of  the  services  of  the  higher  salaried, 
better  teachers  of  those  grades.  The  example  and  the  actual  work  of  such 
teachers  always  strengthens  the  whole  school  and  has  a  beneficial  effect  on  the 
entire  institution.  Such  a  plan  as  this  really  is  detrimental  to  the  schools  as 
a  whole,  and  is  of  doubtful  advantage  even  to  the  children  who  are  directly 
concerned. 

8.  Extension  Classes. — Short  commercial  or  industrial  courses  are  intro- 
duced to  supplement  the  regular  elementary  course.  Many  pupils  drop  out 
of  this  course  during  the  last  two  years  of  school  and  attend  privately  given 
courses  that  fit  them  for  minor  clerkships.  As  a  rule,  business  courses  for 
children  of  this  age  are  only  given  in  outside  institutions.  l)ut  this  plan  con- 
templates making  them  part  of  the  public  school  and  allowing  the  pupils 
who  so  desire  to  take  them  without  receiving  credit  toward  graduation. 
Pupils  who  stop  school  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  year  are  obliged  to  lake  up 
unskilled  labor  to  gain  a  livelihood.  Business  courses  fit  them  for  clerical 
positions,  but  that  has  the  disadvantage  of  tending  to  place  immature  boys  and 
girls  in  a  kind  of  work  which  makes  manual  labor  distasteful,  even  though 
there  is  a  greater  demand  for  and  it  is  better  paid.  Such  courses  will  help 
keep  the  children  in  school,  however,  and  during  the  last  two  years  the  shop- 
work    and    domestic    science   courses    will    servo    to    instil    more    respect    for 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  43, 

manual  labor,  and,  as  the  graduates  are  eligible   for  admission  to  the  voca- 
tional schools,  the  extension  classes  will  not  prove  to  be  an  unmixed  evil. 

9.  Special  Classes  for  Overage  or  Foreign-born  Children. — Through  ill 
health  or  truancy  it  frequently  happens  that  pupils  who  are  old  enough  to 
go  to  work  legally  are  a  long  ways  short  of  the  required  education.  These 
are  put  into  special  classes,  whose  membership  is  small,  and  the  teachers  are 
instructed  to  present  only  the  essentials  and  in  that  way  to  fit  the  children  as 
speedily  as  possible  to  meet  the  legal  educational  requirements  for  employ- 
ment certificates.  Similar  classes  are  also  formed  for  foreign-born  children 
who  can  neither  read  nor  speak  English.  Such  persons  are  frequently  fairly 
well  educated  in  the  country  from  which  they  came,  and  this  opportunity 
enables  them  to  become  self-supporting  much  sooner  than  would  otherwise 
be  possible.  In  these  classes,  attention  is  confined  to  the  study  of  English, 
and  the  pupils  are  pushed  as  rapidly  as  possible  into  the  grades  for  which 
their  other  scholastic  attainments  fit  them. 

10.  Promotion  by  Subjects. — Promotions  are  usually  made  because  the 
pupil  has  passed  in  all  the  work  of  his  grade.  They  are  often  made  because 
the  candidate  has  passed  in  a  majority  of. the  subjects  which  he  has  studied 
during  the  term.  As  a  result,  some  few  subjects  in  his  course  are  practically 
skipped,  or  if  the  child  is  not  promoted,  he  is  obliged  to  trudge  painfully  for 
another  term  over  subjects  wdiich  he  knows  quite  well.  As  an  alternative, 
the  child  is  promoted  in  the  subjects  in  which  he  passed,  and  is  kept  back  in 
the  others  till  he  completes  them.  This  results  in  a  more  thorough,  fairer 
course. 

11.  Ungraded  Classes. — Throughout  the  city  are  scattered  unfortunate 
children  whose  mentality  is  obscured  and  wdio  are,  in  consequence,  either  in- 
corrigible, or  are  unable  to  learn  except  with  the  most  careful  personal  atten- 
tion. These  classes  are  usually  quite  small,  and  receive  the  most  skilful  atten- 
tion that  the  city  can  provide. 

12.  Chicago  Plan. — An  ambitious  teacher  with  an  unusual  class  is  encour- 
aged to  carry  her  class  over  the  term's  work  in  the  shortest  possible  time.  As 
soon  as  the  work  of  the  term  is  finished  acceptably  to  the  supervising  officer, 
the  teacher  is  given  permission  to  go  on  with  the  work  of  the  next  term,  thus 
sometimes  finishing  the  work  of  three  terms  in  two. 

13.  North  Denver  Plan. — It  is  well  known  that  an  effort  to  teach  involves 
one  in  more  thorough  study  than  any  other  method.  Acting  on  this  principle, 
teachers  who  employ  it  pair  off  the  dull  pupils  and  the  bright  ones,  asking  the 
latter  to  tutor  the  former  carefully  in  the  topics  which  are  ordinarily  found 
difficult. 

14.  Brooklyn  Plan.— Pupils  are  promoted  on  trial  whose  chances  of  stay- 
ing in  the  higher  grades  are  too  slight  to  entitle  them  to  the  regular  promotion. 
In  addition  to  this,  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  month  of  the  new  term,  the 
most  advanced  pupil  in  each  grade  from  2A  to  8A,  inclusive,  is  placed  on  trial 
in  the  grade  above.  As  often  as  may  seem  necessary  thereafter  the  class 
teacher  reports  to  the  principal  the  studies  in  which  the  specially  promoted 
pupil  is  doing  satisfactory  work,  the  studies  in  which  the  work  is  passable  and 
those  in  which  it  is  excellent.  The  report  also  includes  the  deportment  mark. 
the  effort  mark  and  the  attendance.    This  report  is  made  on  a  blank  furnished 


44  SCHOOL  WORK 

to  the  teacher,  and  pupils  who  do  not  make  satisfactory  progress  are  sum- 
moned to  the  office,  where  they  must  explain  every  portion  of  the  report  that 
is  unsatisfactory.  After  a  warning  they  are  sometimes  given  another  trial, 
and  in  nearly  every  case  such  students  catch  up  with  the  new  class.  Full  dis- 
cussion of  the  results  of  this  plan  is  given  in  a  preceding  section. 

It  will  be  observed  that  all  these  plans  look  toward  a  release  from  the 
handicap  caused  by  the  large  numbers  which  the  teacher  is  obliged  to  have  in 
her  class.  There  is  very  little  effort  made  in  these  devices  to  push  along  the 
brilliant  pupils  or  to  pay  them  any  especial  attention.  It  would  seem,  there- 
fore, that  the  resources  of  the  public  school  with  its  mass  instruction  furnishes 
no  panacea  for  the  evils  of  retardation  to  which  the  most  talented  public  school 
pupils  are  subjected.  If  a  remedy  were  demanded  from  the  public  school,  the 
case  would  be  well-nigh  hopeless.  The  testimony  of  the  value  of  these  experi- 
ments is  uniformly  good  so  far  as  large  numbers  are  concerned.  There  is  insuf- 
ficent  advantage,  however,  to  the  individual  child  except  the  dubious  one  of 
being  pushed  along  more  rapidly  by  the  impulse  of  the  throng  whose  pace  has 
been  accelerated. 

The  plans  referred  to  above  as  8,  9,  11,  deal  with  especial  types  of  chil- 
dren or  with  those  who  cannot  remain  in  school  long  enough  to  secure  an  ad- 
vanced education.    These  three  plans  will,  therefore,  be  given  no  further  place 
in  this  discussion.     Plan  No.  13  smacks  of  the  old  Lancastrian  scheme  which 
was  devised  to  save  the  expense  of  employing  more  teachers.     It  was  not  a 
success,  for  it  substituted  inferior  instruction  for  that  of  skilled  teachers,  and 
it  was,  in  course  of  time,  abandoned  after  a  thorough  trial.    Such  a  plan  would 
be  given  no  thought  if  the  class  were  small  enough  so  that  the  teacher  could 
do  justice  to  each  individual.    This  brings  us  at  once  to  the  fundamental  reason 
for  the  invention  of  all  the  plans  described  above,  i.  e.,  classes  that  are  too  large. 
Until  we  reach  the  stage  where  parents  are  educated  to  a  willingness  to  tax 
themselves  and  their  childless  neighbors  as  heavily  as  may  be  necessary,  the 
classes  in  public  schools  will  be  larger  than  they  ought  to  be.    This  is  the  cru- 
cial point.    In  New  York  City,  where  the  public  schools  are  as  good  as  any  in 
the  country,  the  Board  of  Education  has  a  by-law  which  prescribes  that  classes 
in  the  primary  department  shall  be  limited  to  fifty  members  and  from  the 
fifth  to  the  eighth  year  they  shall  be  limited  to  forty  members,  unless  by  spe- 
cial permission  of  the  Board  of   Superintendents.     Following  right  on  the 
heels  of  this  by-law  is  a  ruling  promulgated  by  the  said  Board  of  Superin- 
tendents declaring  that  "no  child  of  six  years  old  or  over  shall  be  refused 
admission  to  the  public  schools."     As  a  result,  there  are  classes  in  the  pri- 
mary  department   of   our   schools   that  contain   70  or  more   pupils   and    few 
schools  can  show  a  clean  record  of  40  or  below  in  school  years  5  to  8.    Were 
it  otherwise,  the  demands  for  more  classes  would  be  much  greater  than  they 
are  now.    It  cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasized  that  parsimony  is  at  the  basis 
of  the  overcrowding  in  our  public  schools  and  overcrowding  makes  impos- 
sible the  teaching  that  will  give  all  pupils  their  just  dues  by  paying  each  indi- 
vidual the  attention  which  he  needs.     "As  schools  usually  go,  it  is  ten  times 
harder  for  a  pupil  to  gain  a  grade  than  to  lose  one;  ten  times  harder  for  a 
pupil  to  rise  than  to  fall.     Never  until  the  school  is  built  fundamentally  for 
the  individual  will  this  element  of  loss  disappear."^ 

'See  Appendix   Ix. 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  45 

The  graded  system  does  not  really  grade.  It  has  been  pointed  out  that 
in  a  room  full  of  children  who  have  just  been  promoted  to  the  eighth  year 
of  the  elementary  school,  scarcely  any  two  are  alike  in  ability  or  in  attain- 
ments. Experiments  have  shown  that  if  such  a  class  is  allowed  to  go  on  with 
individual  instruction,  progressing  just  as  fast  as  the  work  is  finished,  in 
four  months'  time  the  slowest  and  the  fastest  will  be  a  full  term  apart. 

As  any  plan  looking  toward  smaller  classes  and  a  consequent  remedying 
of  these  defects  is  desirable,  a  brief  discussion  of  the  group  system  men- 
tioned above,  is  introduced  here.  In  the  old  time  district  school  where  one 
teacher  gave  instruction  to  all  the  grades,  it  was  manifestly  impossible  to  have 
all  the  pupils  recite  at  once,  since  their  different  attainments  naturally  forced 
them  into  groups  or  classes,  all  of  which  studied  while  one  was  reciting.  Ex- 
periments in  New  York  City  with  so-called  ungraded  classes  brought  the  al- 
ternation of  study  period  and  recitation  period  into  such  prominence  that  it 
was  tried  in  the  regular  classes  with  good  effect  in  some  cases.  The  plan 
is  to  divide  the  class  into  two  sections  known  as  the  A  and  the  B  sections. 
These  recite  together  in  such  subjects  as  music,  physical  culture,  drawing, 
and  other  subjects  in  which  individual  work  is  not  prominent.  They  recite 
separately,  however,  in  arithmetic,  composition,  reading,  spelling,  and  those 
subjects  in  which  more  individual  attention  is  needed.  While  one  section  is 
reciting  the  other  is  studying  and  as  the  work  is  more  closely  adapted  to  the 
attainments  of  the  pupils,  the  recitation  periods  are  shortened,  and  thus  time 
is  gained  for  the  two  sections  in  some  subjects.  In  a  system  of  schools  like 
our  own,  where  the  teachers  are  familiar  with  no  other  form  of  manage- 
ment than  that  in  which  the  entire  class  is  doing  the  same  work  directly 
under  the  teacher's  eye,  there  appear  to  be  some  genuine  objections  to  the 
plan.  In  the  first  place,  the  pupils  are  not  in  the  habit  of  studying  by  them- 
selves, and  it  is  not  easy  to  keep  them  at  that  sort  of  work  and  at  the  same 
time  keep  the  studying  and  the  teaching  up  to  a  high  standard.  In  the  edu- 
cational magazines  are  pages  devoted  to  "busy"  work  and  "seat"  work.  If 
the  teacher  is  not  able  to  lay  out  something  practical  for  the  pupils,  it  will 
be  needful  for  her  to  take  this  work  bodily  from  the  printed  pages  and  use 
it.  The  other  objection  is  on  the  score  of  discipline,  but  this  is  not  heard 
from  the  teachers  who  have  tried  the  system  and  have  found  that  it  works. 
These  find  that  the  group  system  breeds  self-reliance  and  tendencies  toward 
self -"government.  The  occupation  of  mind,  hand,  and  eye  are  advantageous 
in  holding  a  boy  who  might  otherwise  be  troublesome.  The  following  sum- 
mary of  advantages  from  the  use  of  the  group  system  has  been  set  forth  by 
a  recent  writer  ■} 

1.  It  makes  possible  true  individual  teaching. 

2.  It  fixes  individual  responsibility  on  the  child,  with  resultant  self- 
reliance  and  ability  to  study  independently.  He  knows  a  thing  because  he 
LEARNED  it. 

3.  It  provides  work  in  advance  for  the  bright  boy  and  brings  the  slow 
one  up  to  grade. 

4.  It  includes  attention  to  proper  methods  of  teaching  and  at  the  same 
time  the  absolutely  indispensable  advantage  of  study  on  the  part  of  the 
child. 


^See    Appendix    X. 


46  SCHOOL  WORK 

5.  It  insures  drill,  the  weak  point  in  our  modern  methods. 

6.  Its  work  is  more  thorough  because  it  makes  possible  greater  concen- 
tration on  the  part  of  both  teacher  and  child. 

These  reasons  are  undoubtedly  those  of  an  enthusiast  whose  expert  work 
in  this  field  has  secured  better  results  than  are  likely  to  be  obtained  by  any 
other  principal.  Her  ideas  are  very  practical,  however,  and  some  of  her 
suggestions  are  offered  herewith.  She  distinguishes  three  group  methods 
known  as  the  constant,  the  shifting,  and  the  grade  groups  respectively.  The 
first  places  two  or  three  rather  permanent  groups  in  each  class,  the  grouping 
to  be  maintained  in  all  subjects.  In  the  shifting  group  scheme  the  groups 
are  temporary  in  formation  and  are  formed  only  in  English  and  arithmetic. 
The  membership  of  these  groups  is  variable,  the  same  child  passing  from 
group  to  group,  according  to  his  ability  to  keep  up.  The  third  group  is  most 
feasible  where  there  is  a  large  enough  number  of  pupils  in  one  grade  to  per- 
mit the  formation  of  three  classes.  The  brightest  pupils  are  put  into  one 
class,  the  dullest  into  another,  and  all  the  others  in  a  third.  The  shifting 
group  plan  is  then  applied  to  each  of  these  grade  groups.  This  enables  the 
teacher  to  promote  as  rapidly  as  possible  pupils  whose  inclination  to  study 
and  consequent  power  to  advance  carries  them  along  more  rapidly  than  the 
mass. 

The  first  of  these  plans  is  possible  in  any  school,  no  matter  how  small 
and  is  somewhat  adapted  for  pushing  ahead  the  brighter  pupils.  The  grade 
group  plan  in  which  the  plan  of  shifting  groups  has  been  incorporated 
assists  in  promoting  more  individuals  than  any  other.  A  few  words  of  detail 
about  the  working  out  of  the  shifting  group  plan  may  not  be  out  of  place. 
Imagine  a  3B  class  ready  to  take  up  the  subject  of  long  division.  The  topic  is 
presented  to  the  entire  class.  After  a  most  careful  presentation  and  ques- 
tions, a  brief  test  is  given  to  find  out  how  many  pupils  know  the  subject.  It 
will  be  found  that,  perhaps,  a  third  of  the  class  is  able  to  solve  the  easy  exam- 
ples given.  These  are  called  group  i.  At  the  arithmetic  period  the  next  day, 
after  the  mental  work  has  been  given,  group  i  is  given  seat  work  in  long 
division,  and  the  topic  is  again  presented  fully  to  the  others.  About  half  of 
these  will  be  found  to  have  grasped  the  subject  and  they  are  put  into  group  2. 
The  third  day,  at  the  arithmetic  period,  a  quiz  is  given  to  the  entire  class, 
after  which  group  i  is  set  at  some  review  topic  and  at  some  examples  in 
long  division,  group  2  is  given  a  full  set  of  long  division  examples,  and 
the  lesson  is  again  fully  presented  to  the  remainder  of  the  class.  The  balance 
of  the  hour  is  spent  in  drilling  them,  after  which  the  whole  class  again  goes 
on  with  arithmetic  in  the  same  way.  There  are  still  some  who  have  not  even 
yet  grasped  the  subject,  but  they  must  take  their  chances  of  picking  it  up 
from  their  fellows  as  they  advance. 

As  was  previously  pointed  out,  one  of  the  most  serious  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  the  successful  employment  of  the  group  method  is  the  proper 
preparation  and  supervision  of  the  seat  work.  When  the  system  seemed  to 
fail,  the  failure  can  usually  be  traced  to  a  lack  of  adequate  preparation  for 
seat  work.  In  the  first  place  it  must  require  real  study  on  the  part  of  the 
pupil,  and  it  must  not  degenerate  into  busy  work.  The  seat  work  must  be 
closely  and  definitely  related  to  the  topics  that  are  being  taught.    Avoid  work 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  47 

that  demands  constant  writing.  It  must  also  interest  the  child  and  help  to 
hold  his  attention  if  disorder  in  the  study  group  is  to  be  avoided.  The  seat 
work  must  be  corrected  if  the  children  are  to  consider  it  of  any  value.  In 
order  to  do  this,  the  work  must  be  carefully  laid  out  and  planned  in  such  a 
way  that  large  amount  of  written  work  will  not  accumulate.  Frequently 
group  I  can  profitably  correct  the  seat  work  of  group  2.  This  insures  the 
most  careful  scrutiny  of  the  papers  by  their  owners  who  will  endeavor  to  see 
whether  mistakes  have  been  made  in  marking  their  work. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  the  hands  of  an  earnest  teacher,  the  shift- 
ing group  method  described  above  is  of  real  value  in  making  class-room 
work  more  effective.  The  system  has  been  tried  quite  generally  in  this  city. 
Although  many  teachers  and  supervisors  have  declared  against  it  because 
they  were  not  successful,  yet  others  have  proved  its  worth  and  have  shown 
that  it  is  applicable  everywhere.  But  with  the  highest  degree  of  success 
granted  to  the  group  system  at  its  best  the  fact  remains  that  time  is  lost  to 
the  individual  child  whose' innate  ability  to  work  effectively  entitles  him  to  be 
in  a  group  by  himself.  His  time  should  be  carefully  arranged  and  made  as 
productive  as  the  highest  skill  of  the  trained  teacher  can  make  it.  If  there 
is  any  portion  of  the  day  when  his  need  of  the  teacher's  help  is  temporarily 
satisfied,  he  should  be  out  of  the  crowded  class  room  at  work  or  at  play  in 
the  open  air  with  nature,  or  amid  the  pleasant  surroundings  of  a  pleasant 
home  stocked  with  books  and  pictures.  For  the  child  who  is  unusually  capa- 
ble, the  system  of  grouping  singly  in  the  important  subjects  is  the  only  one 
that  the  parent  will  accept  if  he  has  the  best  interest  of  his  child  at  heart 
and  if  he  also  has  the  means  to  carry  out  his  inclinations. 

The  foregoing  is  an  attempt  to  summarize  what  has  been  done  by  the 
private  and  public  schools  to  lessen  the  handicap  caused  by  the  large  numbers 
which  each  teacher  is  obliged  to  have  in  her  class.  At  first  glance  it  would 
seem  as  though  the  private  school  had  attained  better  results  in  this  partic- 
ular, but  the  smaller  classes  are  more  often  due  to  lack  of  applicants  than 
otherwise  and  any  gain  in  this  direction  is  offset  by  less  adequate  equipment 
and,  with  some  exceptions,  by  less  capable  teachers.  There  is  no  private 
school  in  this  city  that  can  compare  with  the  new  million  dollar  public  high 
schools,  nor  with  the  latest  and  best  elementary  schools,  while  the  necessary 
economy  in  financial  administration  prevents  the  employment  of  the  most 
expert  teachers.  On  the  other  hand,  the  public  school  with  its  generous  finan- 
cial backing  by  the  taxpayers  cannot  possibly  consider  the  especial  need  of 
any  individual  child,  and  so  the  brilliant  child  can  go  out  little  if  any  faster 
than  his  fellows.  He  must  follow  the  course,  even  if  it  includes  much  that 
he  has  already  acquired  from  sources  outside  the  school. 

PART   III. 

Critique  and  a  Suggested  Course  of  Study. 

In  all  the  work  described  in  the  preceding  section,  the  dominant  thought 
may  be  described  under  the  following  heads : 

I.     Give  the  child  the  best  of  instruction  and  equipment  for  study. 


48  SCHOOL  WORK 

2.  Save  his  time  by  meeting  his  individual  needs  and  by  omitting  nov 
essential  details. 

3.  Follow  the  leading  of  his  interest  awakened  naturally  (or  in  rare 
instances  artificially). 

In  the  best  of  the  work  described  the  following  features  may  also  be  rec- 
ognized : 

1.  An  attempt  to  follow  with  the  individual  the  course  of  nature  as 
exemplified  in  the  history  of  the  race. 

2.  The  introduction  of  hand  training. 

The  time  requisite  for  a  special  course  of  training  is  a  thoroughly 
equipped  teacher.  She  may  be  the  child's  mother.  If  this  is  possible  so  much 
the  better.  In  the  cases  described  in  the  previous  sections,  effective  work  was 
done  in  each  instance  by  the  parents  whenever  they  tried.  If  the  mother's 
help  is  not  available  for  any  reason,  and  if  a  teacher  must  therefore  be  em- 
ployed, a  college  graduate  who  has  fitted  herself  by  a  thorough  going  nor- 
mal training  course  and  experience  in  teaching  children  should  be  selected. 
A  wise  parent  will  not  allow  expense  to  keep  him  from  securing  a  satisfactory 
teacher  who  is  widely  read,  an  earnest  student  of  natural  history,  gifted  in 
conversation,  winsome  in  personality,  and  fully  w^orthy  of  imitation  in  man- 
ners and  character.  She  should  be  competent  to  be  entrusted  with  full  au- 
thority to  govern,  authority  which  must  never  be  questioned  within  the 
child's  observation.  She  should  also  have  full  power  to  work  out  the  details 
of  the  course  so  that  it  may  be  adapted  to  each  pupil's  needs.  No  matter 
what  course  of  study  is  adopted,  the  success  of  the  plan  depends  upon  the 
teacher,  and  her  equipment  of  room  and  appliances.  The  number  of  teachers 
competent  to  do  this  work  is  very  limited,  but  the  number  of  parents  who 
desire  their  services   is   still  more  limited. 

Just  at  this  point  a  note  of  warning  must  be  sounded.  American  parents 
know  too  little  about  the  teachers  of  their  children.  The  writer  once  under- 
took to  train  a  Shetland  pony  for  a  fortnight.  Daily  interviews  and  consulta- 
tions were  sought  by  the  owner,  who  watched  the  process  closely  and  fol- 
lowed every  suggestion  almost  slavishly.  Of  the  thousands  of  parents  whose 
children  have  been  placed  in  his  care  for  months  and  years,  not  more  than 
twenty  have  voluntarily  sought  his  acquaintance  and  advice.  It  is  perfectly 
safe  to  assert  that  at  least  four-fifths  of  these  parents  would  have  insisted  on 
knowing  him  personally  if  he  had  entrusted  the  education  of  their  colts,  their 
pigs,  or  even  their  puppies  to  him.  That  a  child  should  be  of  so  much  less 
consequence  than  a  dog  in  a  parent's  eyes  is  startling.  The  fact  is  no  doubt 
due  to  the  impression  that  has  prevailed  for  centuries,  that  anybody  can 
teach.  It  is  high  time  that  this  notion  be  destroyed  and  that  the  profound 
difference  between  good  and  poor  teaching  be  recognized.  Know  your  child's 
teachers  and  do  not  ask  him  to  maintain  the  intimate  relation  of  pupil  with 
anyone  not  good  enough  to  sit  at  your  talilc. 

The  equipment  can  also  be  improved.  In  several  cases  cited  above  we 
saw  children  working  in  comfortable  homes  with  well-stocked  juvenile  libra- 
ries. In  some  instances  where  school  rooms  were  used,  birds,  flowers,  a  print- 
ing press,  a  typewriter  and  other  needed  implements  were  taken  as  a  matter 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  4'j 

of  course.  Mechanical  appliances  have  their  place  in  the  primary  class  room 
as  well  as  in  the  college.  Garfield's  statement  that  a  university  is  a  log  with 
a  boy  on  one  end  and  Mark  Hopkins  on  the  other  does  not  deny  the  advan- 
tage of  a  three  hundred  thousand  dollar  equiprrient  in  the  same  building  with 
a  boy  and  a  master.  "The  world  do  move,"  and  the  best  is  similarly  advan- 
tageous for  the  primary  child. 

As  has  been  intimated  elsewhere,  the  environment  of  children  is  very 
important.  Vain  attempts  have  been  made  to  remove  the  glove  industry 
from  the  plateau  of  Fulton  Co.,  N.  Y.  After  repeated  losses  of  capital  from 
such  efforts  the  student  of  political  economy  pointed  out  to  the  manufactur- 
ers that  his  employees  do  not  learn  their  business  after  they  are  grown  up. 
The  baby  playing  on  the  floor  at  home  has  gloves  for  playthings  because 
every  farmhouse  for  miles  about  sews  gloves.  The  growing  boys  and  girls 
hear  their  elders  daily  discuss  glovecutting  and  grades  of  leather.  Their 
games  are  those  which  imitate  glovemaking.  They  grow  up  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  glove  industry  and  with  no  thought  of  formal  training  or  ap- 
prenticeship they  are  ready  to  take  their  places  in  the  factories  when  needed. 

This  illustration  shows  how  the  education  of  children  is  fostered  uncon- 
sciously. The  children  from  our  better  class  of  homes  learn  correct  forms 
of  speech  as  they  learn  good  manners.  The  names  of  artists  and  literature 
are  familiar  to  them.  Their  very  games  give  them  drill  in  what  must  be  con- 
sciously taught  less  favored  children.  Not  all  homes  are  uniform,  however, 
and  one  child  will  excel  in  music,  another  in  biology,  another  in  poetry  and 
another  in  art.  When  these  children  start  in  school  in  one  class  to  go  over  a 
uniform  course  of  study  and  to  be  run  into  a  common  mold,  there  cannot 
but  be  serious  loss.  The  child  who  can  be  treated  as  an  individual  and  be 
taught  what  he  does  not  know,  every  advantage  being  taken  of  niche  and 
ledge  in  his  climb  up  learning's  height,  has  an  immense  advantage.  No  won- 
der that  President  Barnard  speaks  so  highly  of  the  value  of  his  home  train- 
ing. 

Similarly,  all  that  will  not  advance  the  child  should  be  eliminated  from 
his  field  of  endeavor.  Dr.  McMurry  will  be  cited  later  as  making  some  vital 
recommendations  as  to  omissions  in  arithmetic.  Other  paths  as  well  can 
be  shortened  and  the  journey  can  be  simplified  materially.  Only  the  expert 
teacher  working  under  the  best  of  conditions  can  accomplish  this  careful 
planning  of  work  for  the  child. 

It  is  universally  admitted  to  be  sound  theory  that  the  child's  interests 
should  be  the  guide  in  instruction.  Spencer  elaborated  this  idea  in  his  essay 
on  'Tntellectual  Education."  Inasmuch  as  the  developing  interests  of  no  two 
children  are  alike,  no  course  of  study  can  be  so  outlined  beforehand  as  to  fit 
a  given  case.  The  best  that  can  be  done,  therefore,  is  to  lay  out  a  general 
course,  and  leave  to  the  teacher  the  work  of  adapting  it  to  the  case  in  hand. 
This  requires  great  skill,  knowledge  and  experience.  Only  the  most  highly 
trained  teacher  can  meet  these  demands  without  loss  of  time,  or,  what  is 
much  more  serious,  loss  of  interest.  As  was  pointed  out  in  the  account  of 
Dr.  Dewey's  school,  it  is  quite  possible  to  attach  uninteresting  arithmetic 
and  composition  lessons  to  the  intrinsically  interesting  work  of  a  well  planned 
course  and  thus  carry  the  pupil  over  many  difficult  places.     We  do  not  wish 


50  SCHOOL  WORK 

to  spare  the  child  all  effort  for  the  ability  to  put  forth  effort  is  an  important 
acquisition.  But  the  false  idea  that  the  effort  must  be  painful  in  order  to  be 
valuable  should  be  rejected. 

It  is  contended  by  many  educators  that  just  as  the  embryo  takes  from 
conception  to  maturity  the  various  forms  of  animal  life  from  the  lowest  to 
the  highest,  so  the  true  and  most  effective  course  of  study  will  take  the 
child  through  the  various  stages  in  the  historical  development  of  the  race.  Dr. 
Dewey's  school  work  in  Chicago  was  based  in  part  at  least  on  this  idea.  The 
same  thought  guided  Dr.  Jacobi  in  planning  her  work.  In  the  former  we 
see  the  children  acquiring  the  first  rude  arts  of  primitive  man  such  as  spear- 
making,  spinning  and  w^eaving.  The  definite  purpose  here  was  to  follow  the 
lines  of  least  resistance  by  employing  hereditary  traits  instead  of  carving  new 
paths  in  consciousness.  The  results  were  evident  and  the  children  so  taught 
found  school  a  place  of  daily  interest.  Dr.  Jacobi  took  the  relation  of  space 
and  time  which  are  the  first  to  appeal  to  consciousness  as  the  basis  of  her 
work.  These  she  followed  with  motion  which  made  space  and  time  necessary. 
Thus  she,  too,  followed  up  the  natural  course  of  intellectual  development 
that  have  been  experienced  by  every  child  who  has  not  been  trammeled  by 
artificial  work  in  school.  Her  results  were  little  short  of  marvelous,  although 
the  logical  pursuit  of  her  investigations  carried  her  so  far  from  the  beaten 
track  as  almost  to  terrify  us  with  their  strangeness. 

Manual  training  is  seen  by  these  citations  to  be  indispensable.  Even  Mill 
laments  his  lack  of  it  and  thinks  that  in  that  part  alone  of  his  education  his 
father  erred.  Pres.  Barnard  declares  unequivocally  for  it.  Not  only  did  he 
learn  other  things  while  learning  to  set  type,  but  he  received  training  in  obser- 
vation and  concentration  that  was  of  lasting  benefit  to  him.  Bodily  activity  is 
inseparable  from  a  healthy  normal  child,  and  the  desire  to  imitate  his  elders 
is  his  chief  characteristic.  The  combination  of  these  two,  systematized  and 
arranged,  gives  the  course  of  hand  work  we  want  our  pupils  to  have.  It  does 
not  merely  train  the  hand  to  skill,  but  it  trains  all  the  mental  faculties  of  intel- 
lect, imagination,  and  will.  The  man  or  woman  who  docs  no  work  is  a  drone, 
an  excrescence.  The  normal  child  must  be  employed  or  he  will  be  at  variance 
with  his  traditions,  his  inheritance,  and  his  native  tendencies. 

Many  parents  have  devised  courses  for  their  children  independently  of 
those  offered  by  the  schools.  Unfortunately,  no  effort  has  been  made  hitherto 
to  assist  such  work  by  collecting  the  experience  of  children  who  have  been 
successfully  taught  in  this  fashion  for  all  or  a  part  of  their  elementary  course 
or  whose  work  has  been  lightened  materially  by  improved  methods.  In  this 
volume  definite  accounts  of  actual  work  have  been  given.  The  following 
course  of  study  written  in  the  light  of  these  experiments  may  be  suggestive 
to  parents  who  wish  to  adopt  a  similar  ]ilan.  By  its  flexibility  it  is  more 
adaptable  to  the  needs  of  the  child  than  the  ordinary  elementary  course 
planned  for  school  from  which  it  differs  in  recognizing  the  attainments  of  the 
individual.  It  also  eliminates  needless  material  which  usually  appears  for 
conventional  and  symmetrical  reasons.  Spencer  advises  us  to  follow  up  the 
child's  interests  as  they  awaken.  'J^iis  course  obeys  his  dictum  instead  of 
presenting  new  topics  and  subjects  by  the  calendar. 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  51 

In  preparing-  for  this  course  of  study  and  in  using  it,  some  suggestions 
in  the  form  of  cautions  are  offered. 

1.  Avoid  baby  talk.  The  child  has  much  to  learn.  Do  not  compel  him 
to  learn  a  jargon  for  which  he  must  later  substitute  correct  words.  Give  him 
at  once  the  words  and  phrases  which  you  wish  him  to  carry  through  life. 

2.  Do  not  hesitate  sometimes  to  go  beyond  his  understanding.  Although 
you  will  in  general  adapt  your  words  and  thoughts  to  his  infantile  intellect, 
yet  a  beautiful  poem  will  often  appeal  to  him,  because  of  its  form. 

3.  In  story  telling,  action  appeals  to  the  childish  mind  long  before  de- 
scription.    In  narrative,  make  free  use  of  gestures. 

4.  Ayoid  bog-ies  and  stories  that  will  bring  up  terrifying  images.  Fear 
paralyzes. 

5.  Never  threaten  a  child  with  punishment  at  the  hands  of  mysterious 
strangers  whom  you  will  summon.  Do  not  allow  him  to  get  the  idea  that 
there  is  danger  in  darkness  or  in  lonely  places.  Explain  clearly  why  he  must 
not  touch  the  stove,  but  never  display  any  surprise  at  his  willingness  to  go 
to  the  cellar,  the  garret,  or  the  dark  closet  any  more  than  at  his  going  to  other 
parts  of  the  house. 

6.  Always  tell  him  the  exact  truth  and  keep  your  promise  to  the  letter 
whether  you  promise  reward  or  punishment.  ]\Iake  no  hasty  or  ill-advised 
pledges  or  threats. 

7.  Do  not  force  the  child.  Study  his  interests  and  be  led  by  them.  Pre- 
sent the  material  that  is  uppermost  in  his  thought.  Drop  it  temporarily  as 
soon  as  he  is  sated. 

8.  Do  not  attempt  this  course  of  training  unless  the  child  is  to  associate 
with  his  parents  and  absorb  knowledge  from  their  conversation  about  books 
and  men. 

9.  Do  not  isolate  him  from  comrades  of  his  own  age.  The  work  in  phys- 
ical culture,  manual  training,  music,  and  possibly  drawing  can  be  done  in 
classes.  There  should  be  friends  of  his  own  age  with  whom  some  of  his 
leisure  may  be  spent. 

The  following  general  view  of  an  elementary  course  of  study  is  adapted 
from  ]\Ir.  Preston  Search's  "Ideal  School"=^'  because  it  can  be  used  with  the 
individual   child : 


*See   Appendix   Ir. 


Age. 
0,  6,  7 


(Stage  of 
[Growth 


IKind  of 
[School. 


iCharacferistic[  Socialogical 
[     Purpose.        [Principle. 


Studies. 


■Rapid  brain 
I     growth. 


I  Play 
school. 


[Freedom. 


[Beauty  of 
(harmony. 


[Nature 
[Mother  tons 
[Picture  readi 


Drawing  Play 

ue    Myth  Song 

ng    Construction 


S,  9,  10      [  Middle  I  Elementary  or  [Acquisition 

childhood.        I    alphabetic    [of  tools, 
school. 


Self  control, 


[Nature 

[Drawing 

[Language 

[Writing 

[Reading 


Historical   Narrative 
Literary  Gems 
Form  and   Numbers 
Construction 
Play  Music 


11.   12, 


131       Full 
'childhood. 


Intermediate  I   General 
or  all  round     [survey  and 
school.  I      skill. 

I 


Helpfulness. 


[Nature 
'Geography 
[Language 
[Drawing 


History 

Literature 

Arithmetic 

Geometry 

Mechanics 


Invention 

Industries 

Gymnastic 

Play 

Music 


52  SCHOOL  WORK 

READING  AND   LITERATURE,   INCLUDING  HISTORY 
Stories. — Bible  and  Folklore. — History,  Biography,  Narrative. — Fairy  Tales. 

Begin  with  Mother  Goose  rhymes  and  lullaby  songs.  Make  them  features 
of  the  pre-bedtime  hour.  As  soon  as  the  ability  to  comprehend  stories  is 
seen,  tell  the  story  of  The  ninety  and  nine,  The  little  chicken  who  stayed  out 
all  night,  animal  fables,  etc.  Use  "How  to  Tell  Stories  to  Children"  and  fol- 
low it  with  ''Stories  to  Tell  Children"  (see  Bibliography). 

Mother  Goose  rhymes  and  other  classic  jingles  will  soon  be  stored  in  the 
child's  memory.  He  will  then  enjoy  leafing  the  book  whose  pictures  will  sug- 
gest the  appropriate  story  which  he  will  "read." 

He  is  to  be  taught  to  read,  because  through  this  ability  all  knowledge 
will  come  to  him.  He  must  be  taught  to  read  rapidly,  as  rapidly  as  possible. 
The  rapid  reader  is  not  necessarily  a  slovenly  reader.  In  teaching  reading, 
bear  in  mind  the  aim  in  reading.  The  child  can  take  in  the  idea  through  the 
printed  word,  which  should  be  only  a  medium,  or  he  can  be  so  mistaught 
that  he  will  get  the  idea  only  through  the  spoken  word,  which  comes  in  its 
turn  from  the  printed  word.  The  child  who  is  thus  afflicted  is  ear-minded. 
The  one  who  is  free  from  this  ear  slavery  is  eye-minded.  Avoid  phonic  and 
word  drills  and  all  other  devices  which  will  lead  him  to  hold  the  word  form 
in  mind,  while  the  idea  escapes  him.  It  is  only  by  careful  training  that  this 
can  be  done,  but  it  must  be  well  done. 

The  material  suggested  for  use  after  the  primer  is  the  Eugene  Field 
Primer  (see  Bibliography),  Grimm's  Fairy  Tales,  Weedon  in  Little  Books 
for  Little  People,  Florence  Holbrook's  Hiawatha  Primer,  Cyr's  Graded  Art 
Readers,  The  Eugene  Field  Book  by  Scribners,  The  Morse  Readers,  which 
are  superior  to  all  others  in  many  respects. 

These  can  be  followed  by  a  wealth  of  material  which  will  enable  the 
child  to  cover  without  especial  effort  the  field  of  literature  suggested  in  the 
heading.  Some  of  this  must  be  read  aloud  to  him,  but  if  he  is  left  to  finish 
orally  what  is  thus  started  his  interest  will  carry  him  along  rapidly. 

He  w'ill  be  desirous  at  first  of  .reproducing  his  stories  orally.  If  this  is 
encouraged  by  parents  and  friends,  the  habit  will  grow  on  him.  Do  not  re- 
quire him  to  do  it,  or  he  will  soon  weary.  This  repetition  will  strengthen 
his  ability  to  recall  what  he  has  read.  Judicious  conversational  questioning 
will  systematize  this  knowledge  and  leave  him  with  an  ardent  desire  for  more, 
which  is.  after  all,  the  most  important  end  to  be  attained. 

COMrOSITIOX 

The  child  will  do  what  he  sees  done,  and  has  a  natural  tendency  to  imitate 
letter-writing,  which  may  therefore  be  started  early.  In  order  that  he  may 
not  be  held  back  by  the  mechanical  difficulties  of  penmanship,  he  should  have 
a  typewriter  at  the  age  of  six  years.  If  he  is  praised  for  his  eflforts,  he  will 
soon  turn  out  legible  manuscript.  It  may  be  addressed  to  parents,  who  should 
take  as  much  notice  of  these  letters  as  of  any  other  mail.  Suggestions  as  to 
form  and  content  will  enable  the  pupil  to  write  about  his  experience  during 
the  day,  and  a  little  help  will  start  him  to  writing  stories  for  his  friends. 
These  efforts  in  composition,  both  written  and  oral,  are  very  desirable  and 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY 


53 


should  be  studiously  encouraged.  Do  not  try  to  have  him  learn  penmanship 
till  he  is  ten  years  old,  except  as  he  picks  it  up.  When  penmanship  is  taught, 
the  muscular  movement  should  be  given.  This  requires  greater  muscular 
co-ordination  than  should  be  required  of  a  young  child. 

Oral  composition  is  an  essential  feature  of  good  English  work.  Experi- 
ence shows  that  the  child  who  has  an  abundance  of  it  will  progress  faster  in 
his  ability  to  write  than  one  whose  work  is  wholly  written.  The  narration 
of  personal  experiences  and  the  reproduction  of  matter  which  he  reads  will 
furnish  plenty  of  material  for  this  work.  There  are  many  times  when  the 
child,  trained  to  oral  composition,  will  be  in  a  position  to  continue  it  inci- 
dentally in  narrative  to  his  friends,  a  practice  which  is  none  the  less  valuable, 
even  though  unpremeditated. 

After  the  first  year  of  composition,  he  should  see  well-composed  letters, 
and  should  be  shown  printed  copies  of  composition  written  by  other  children. 
At  the  proper  time,  the  function  of  the  paragraph  and  the  outline  should  be 
explained  to  him,  after  which  he  should  compose  at  frequent  intervals,  aver- 
aging at  least  once  a  week  three  hundred  word  productions,  either  original 
or  in  reproduction  of  some  non-fiction  material  that  he  has  read.  The  custom 
of  imitating  the  style  of  some  well-chosen  classic  author  in  this  way 
is  of  proved  value.  His  attention  can  early  be  called  to  synonyms  and  his  use 
of  them  encouraged. 

GRAMMAR 

Inasmuch  as  the  child  will  speak  correct  English  in  all  forms,  includino- 
moods  and  tenses,  only  the  nomenclature  of  grammar  will  remain  for  him  to 
learn.  This  instruction  prior  to  entering  the  high  school  should  be  limited  to 
the  following  tables,  including  inflection  and  syntax  of  words  in  sentences: 


Nouns 


Pronouns 


Adjectives 


Verbs 


Adverbs 


Prepositions 


\  common 
(  proper 

(personal 
interrogative 
relative 
adjective 
f  descriptive 
(  definitive 


!  Us 


Form 


f  transitive 
■j  intransitive 
[copulative 
regular 
irregular 


f  active 
( passive 


Phrases 
and 

Clauses 

Tenses 


Moods 


Sentences  - 


present  perfect 
past  perfect 
future  perfect 


^time 

place 

degree 

manner 
[interrogative 


noun 

adjective 

adverbial 
r present 
\  past 
I,  future 
r  indicative 
\  subjunctive 
[  imperative 

r  simple 

Form   \  complex 
[compound 

{declarative 
imperative 
interrogative 
exclamatory 


Use 


f  copulative 
_,     .       ^.         (coordinate      (disjunctive 
Conjunctions  |  subordinate 
Interjections 


Infinitives     should     be     treated     as 
nouns,    adjectives    or   adverbs. 

Participles  should  be  taught  as  noun 
or  adjective  participles. 


Sentences  should  be  analyzed  by  diagram. 


HISTORY 

From  the  very  first  of  the  story  telling  period,  history  should  have  an 
important  place.  The  bedtime  hour,  with  its  request,  "Please  tell  me  a  story," 
is  invaluable.  English  and  American  history  in  stories  about  imaginary  boys 
and  girls  can  supplement  Bible  stories  here,  and  the  child  will  call  for  more. 


54  SCHOOL  WORK 

Pass  lightly  over  battles  and  bloodshed,  and  dwell  on  narratives  that  bring  out 
patriotism.  King  John  and  his  barons,  Columbus,  the  early  English  explorers, 
and  abundance  of  biography  will  cover  the  field,  so  that  the  child  will  be 
ready  for  the  high  school,  with  a  fondness  for  history  as  well  as  some  little 
knowledge  of  it.  Do  not  attempt  to  do  high  school  w^ork.  Put  it  all  in  nar- 
rative form,  leaving  out  inconsequential  details.  These  ideal  narratives  can 
be  followed  by  stories  of  real  persons.  It  is  of  more  importance  that  the 
child  should  have  a  clear  notion  of  the  civic  virtue  displayed  by  the  wealthy 
patriots  in  the  American  Revolution  than  to  be  able  to  date  and  name  all  the 
battles  in  that  great  struggle.  The  story  of  the  lives  of  Washington,  Franklin, 
Madison,  Jackson.  Lincoln,  Grant,  Hayes,  and  Roosevelt  will  include  all  that 
they  need  retain  of  our  country's  development,  its  foreign  relations,  the 
growth  and  destruction  of  slavery  and  our  genesis  as  a  world  power.  Even 
young  as  they  are,  they  can  be  led  to  see  in  history  not  a  mere  succession  of 
events,  but  a  series  of  causes  and  effects  through  which  our  greatness  has 
developed.  This  will  enable  them  to  see  why  we  should  rightly  direct  the 
present  so  as  to  avoid  future  disaster. 

NATURE   AND   SCIENCE 

The  study  of  nature  and  the  study  of  elementary  science  as  involved  in 
the  observation  and  explanation  of  the  conveniences  of  modern  city  life  is 
only  practically  possible  to  a  profitable  degree  under  the  care  and  direction 
of  an  enthusiast  in  science.  At  the  first  meeting  with  the  pupil,  attention  can 
be  drawn  to  growth  which  results  in  different  sizes  in  boys  and  girls.  Growth 
in  plants  can  then  be  noted.  Children  are  fed.  Plants  must  be.  An  after- 
noon or  Saturday  excursion  to  the  nearest  open  country  will  give  an  oppor- 
tunity for  studying  plant  food  and  the  rock  erosion  which  gives  soil.  From 
this  beginning  the  teacher  may  go  by  degrees  into  very  elementary  geology, 
physical  geography,  and  botany.  Stories  should  be  employed  to  convey  the 
instruction.  (See  appendix  2,  'The  Little  Pebble.")  Lead  the  child  to 
observe,  ask  questions,  and  answer  some  of  his  own  questions. 

The  formation  of  soil  and  the  development  of  plant  life  will  lead  natur- 
ally to  the  study  of  home  pets  and  other  domesticated  animals.  Love  for  them 
should  be  inspired  by  their  helplessness.  From  this  will  come  an  inquiry 
about  their  comfort  necessitating  some  knowledge  of  their  habits  and  char- 
acteristics. Their  usefulness  to  man  will  follow  shortly  after,  and  this  will 
form  a  basis  for  contrast  with  their  relatives  in  the  zoological  gardens. 

As  the  child's  advancing  age  leads  him,  under  the  teacher's  skilful  guid- 
ance, into  further  questions,  he  can  be  taken  further  afield  into  the  observa- 
tion of  trees,  glacial  phenomena,  birds  and  later  into  the  study  of  air  currents 
and  meteorology,  particularly  clouds,  rain,  frosts,  snow,  heat,  and  cold.  As 
soon  as  he  is  mature  enough,  the  physical  explanation  of  the  delivery  of 
water,  gas,  and  electricity  can  be  undertaken.  The  familiar  dumbwaiter,  the 
speaking  tube,  the  telephone,  the  street  car  and  related  phenomena  should  re- 
ceive explanation  adapted  to  his  understanding. 

The  study  of  science  is  especially  important  because  it  teaches  observa- 
tion and  establishes  a  jiractical  relation  with  his  environment. 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  5^ 

In  order  to  restrict  the  work  within  proper  elementary  Hmits  in  natural 
history,  those  plants  and  animals  should  be  brought  in,  which  in  his  experience 
are  helpful  or  hostile.  Others  may  be  disregarded  at  this  time.  In  the  class 
of  helpful  ones  we  should  ask  how  far  they  can  help  themselves  and  how  far 
they  need  our  help.  If  hostile,  we  must  ascertain  the  best  way  in  which  this 
hostility  can  be  neutralized,  or  averted.  This  standard  of  selection  will 
enable  us  to  discard  profitless  details  which  consume  time  without  addino-  to 
our  interest. 


DRAWING 

The  drawing  should  be  taught  by  a  special  teacher  who  is  known  to  be 
in  sympathy  with  children  and  with  the  best  methods  of  instructing  them  in 
this  branch.  Results  will  then  be  obtained  that  are  impossible  with  the  less 
highly  trained  regular  teacher.  The  drawing  teacher  should  keep  in  mind  the 
fact  that  "the  habit^  of  seeing  and  imitating  ready  drawn  representation  of 
objects  blunts  the  edge  of  personal  effort  even  in  dealing  with  fresh  objects." 
The  conventional  man,  horse,  or  house  taught  by  careless  nurse  or  parent 
takes  such  complete  possession  of  the  child's  mind  that  he  experiences  serious 
difficulty  in  drawing  from  real  life. 

Mr.  Rooper  in  his  study  quoted  above  says  that  the  greatest  source  of 
error  in  the  child's  drawing  is  the  preconceived  image  which  he  reproduces 
regardless  of  the  object  before  him.  From  the  very  beginning  the  child 
should  draw  from  objects  and  imagination.  The  teacher  may  show  how  to 
place  the  lines  with  pencil  or  brush,  so  that  the  difficult  places  may  be  over- 
come, but  the  child  should  be  urged  to  draw  and  paint  what  he  sees  rather 
than  allowed  to  imitate  merely  the  teacher's  lines.  In  the  early  years,  free- 
hand representation  of  familiar  forms  suggested  by  the  other  branches  in  the 
course  of  study  should  be  given  and  also  pictorial  illustration  with  water 
colors.  With  the  rise  of  the  critical  spirit,  require  the  child  to  analyze  his 
work  and  persevere  in  practice  that  he  may  achieve  results  which  meet  with 
his  approval.  Difficult  muscular  adjustments  are  to  be  made  familiar  through 
repetition  in  order  that  habits  of  action  and  control  may  be  fixed.  With  the 
growth  of  the  critical  sense,  there  is  an  increased  appreciation  of  beauty,  and 
in  the  drawing,  design  and  picture  study,  elements  are  presented  designed  to 
cultivate  this  appreciation.  Toward  all  forms  drawn  or  constructed,  scrutiny 
should  be  directed  to  determine  how  far  each  conforms  to  the  laws  of  good 
proportion,  refinement  of  form  and  harmony  of  color. 

"The  study"  of  pictures  presents  a  means  of  developing  taste  on  the  part 
of  the  pupil,  and  in  the  higher  grades  it  oft'ers  an  opportunity  for  further 
illustration  of  the  principles  of  design."  Works  of  undoubted  merit  should 
be  used  and  the  suggestion  is  offered  that  this  work  be  associated  with  lan- 
guage in  the  earlier  years,  but  in  the  later  years  wath  history,  geography,  and 
literature.  Perspective  should  be  presented  as  need  arises  and  this  can  be 
followed  by  pictorial  design. 

^See  Appendix   Is. 
=See  Appendix  It. 


SCHOOL  WORK 


MANUAL    TRAINING 


The  imitative  tendency  of  the  child  will  lead  to  early  attempts  to  help 
with  the  work  in  which  he  sees  his  elders  engaged.  These  attempts  should 
invariably  be  encouraged  because  they  furnish  the  readiest  means  to  meet 
his  earliest  desire  to  use  his  hands.  There  are  other  reasons  but  these  need 
not  now  concern  us.  Both  girls  and  boys  can  be  given  work  with  cord  and 
raffia  to  develop  the  power  of  motor  control  and  co-ordination.  These  mate- 
rials are  especially  suited  to  the  use  of  young  children  because  they  do  not  re- 
quire minute  muscular  effort,  but  they  render  the  fingers  free  and  the  touch 
deft.  By  the  use  of  coarse  cord  with  round  and  flat  laces  single,  double,  and 
triple  knots  with  chain  stitches  can  be  taught  at  an  early  age.  These  can  be 
applied  in  picture  frames,  napkin  rings,  curtain  chains,  sponge  bags,  ham- 
mocks and  a  variety  of  articles.  This  work  can  be  done  by  both  boys  and 
girls  and  they  should  be  led  to  see  the  relation  between  this  work  and  the  later 
textile  weaving  on  a  loom. 

From  this  point  a  girl  should  be  put  through  a  carefully  graded  and 
supervised  course  of  sewing  preferably  in  a  class  with  other  girls.  Instruction 
in  sewing  should  continue  till  she  is  able  to  design,  cut,  and  make  at  least 
a  plain  skirt  and  repair  her  own  wardrobe.  She  should  have  a  carefully 
planned  course  in  cooking  and  serving  plain  meals.  The  care  of  the  various 
rooms  of  the  house  is  included  here  and  she  will  thus  be  fitted  to  supervise 
her  own  household. 

After  a  boy  has  completed  the  early  cord  and  raffia  worS,  he  should  be 
taken  through  a  course  of  construction  work  with  paper  and  strawboard 
using  simple  tools.  Accuracy  in  measurements  is  essential  at  this  stage. 
Boxes,  portfolios,  book  covers,  and  other  simple  articles  may  be  made  from 
these  materials.  As  soon  as  he  can  safely  use  a  sharp  knife  and  other  edged 
tools  he  should  be  given  a  course  in  woodworking.  If  this  develops  any 
especial  taste  for  tools,  the  work  can  be  profitably  carried  on  throughout  his 
elementary  and  high   school  course. 

There  seems  to  be  no  good  reason  for  depriving  a  girl  of  the  pleasure  to 
be  derived  from  working  in  wood,  and  a  boy  should  learn  to  handle  a  needle 
sufficiently  to  do  emergency  repairing  of  a  simple  kind. 

GYMNASTICS 

Children  are  fond  of  formal  exercise.  I'ancy  steps,  Indian  clubs,  dumb- 
bells and  wands  appeal  to  them.  A  class  in  gymnastics  in  which  are  fostered 
special  exercises,  like  rope  climbing,  running,  jumping,  vaulting,  swimming, 
and  shooting  will  prove  of  great  value.  The  work  can  be  profitably  started 
at  the  age  of  six  years.  Do  not  aim  to  have  the  child  excel  in  one  line  but 
try  to  secure  an  all-round  development  with  work  that  appeals  wholly  through 
its   intrinsic  interest. 

aritiimi:tic 

This  work  must  begin  informally,  always  a])])lic'(l  to  things.  The  child 
will  readily  \)\c\<  up  counting  and  reading  nunil)crs.     lie  will  make  some  at- 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY 


37 


tempts  at  adding  in  which  he  can  be  judiciously  encouraged  without  pushing. 
He  will  acquire  in  this  way  the  combinations  which  form  9  or  less.  Sums  can 
be  given  within  this  range  and  examples  in  subtraction  also.  When  he  is 
proficient  in  these  he  may  be  shown  addition  with  carrying.  He  can  then  be 
taught  the  remaining  combinations  of  two  figures,  after  w^hich  subtraction 
will  follow  in  due  course. 

Fractions  should  be  taken  up  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  study,  utiliz- 
ing the  child's  desire  to  "divide"'  with  his  friends.  He  will  quickly  learn  to 
recognize  a  half  slice  of  bread  and  a  half  of  various  objects.  He  may  cut 
a  sheet  of  paper  into  two  pieces  and  call  each  piece  one  half.  From  this  can 
be  developed  the  smaller  fractions,  one  at  a  time.  Do  not  allow  him  to  see 
the  ordinary  fractional  symbol.  Always  represent  the  fraction  wath  the 
denominator  ^yritten  until  the  child  is  so  well  grounded  in  fractions  that  you 
are  sure  that  he  cannot  be  confused.  If  this  plan  is  strictly  followed  he  will 
be  no  more  puzzled  over  2  thirds  or  5  eighths  than  he  will  over  2  pears  or  5 
apples.  He  will  add  fractions  of  the  same  kind  just  as  he  would  any  other 
concrete  numbers  as  long  as  the  sum  does  not  go  beyond  unity.  When  he  is 
perfectly  at  home  in  all  the  combinations  less  than  unity  he  can  be  reminded 
that  2  halves  of  an  apple,  3  thirds  of  an  apple,  4  fourths  of  an  apple,  each 
make  i  whole  apple.  Then  show  him  that  5  eighths  of  an  apple  and  6  eighths 
of  an  apple  make  11  eighths,  which,  when  put  together  will  make  i  whole  ap- 
ple, and  3  eighths  over.  Thereafter  he  should  always  reduce  improper  frac- 
tions to  mixed  numbers.  Subtraction  can  be  carried  along  with  addition. 
Rectangles^  divided  by  parallel  lines  with  unused  portion  marked  out  thus 
are  a  very  convenient   form  for  representing  fractions.     By  this  means  the 


^See   Appendix    lu. 


5S  SCHOOL  WORK  ^ 

equivalence  between  fractions  of  a  higher  and  lower  denominator  can  bt 
readily  shown  and  the  way  paved  for  reduction  to  a  common  denominator 
later  on.  When  the  child  is  well  grounded  in  fractions  and  in  the  change 
from  halves  to  twelfths,  including  the  intermediate  fractions,  and  when  he 
cannot  be  confused  by  any  combination  or  subtraction  of  two  fractions,  he 
may  be  shown  the  shorter  form  of  representation  2/3,  6/7,  etc.  The  work 
even  to  this  point  in  fractions  should  not  be  given  in  too  large  sections,  but 
should  rather  be  carried  along  with  the  other  daily  work  in  arithmetic. 

After  addition  is  understood,  the  multiplication  table  is  the  only  serious 
obstacle  to  be  overcome.  Each  table  should  be  developed  by  means  of  ob- 
jects. When  this  has  been  done  the  table  of  each  integer  should  be  carefully 
memorized,  taking  each  step  in  order  going  through  the  "twelves"  as  2  x  12 
=  24.  Then  each  combination  may  be  placed  on  a  card  with  the  result  on 
the  back  thus  (2  x  6)  on  the  face  of  the  card  and  12  on  the  back.  Each  com- 
bination should  be  reversed  as  6  x  2,  2  x  6,  etc.,  on  separate  cards.  The  pupil 
may  then  take  the  2  x  table  and  after  shuffling  the  cards  go  over  the  set 
making  a  separate  pile  of  those  which  he  does  not  know  well.  By  learning 
both  2x3  and  3x2,  each  succeeding  table  will  have  one  less  combination 
than  the  preceeding  and  in  the  more  difficult  tables  there  will  thus  be  less  to 
learn  as  the  child  advances. 

=4"rom  this  point  on  the  teacher  must  bear  in  mind  that  all  arithmetic  is 
based  on  the  four  fundamental  operations,  addition,  subtraction,  multiplica- 
tion and  division.  Seemingly  new  topics  are  these  old  friends  newly  dressed. 
For  this  reason,  arithmetic  must  be  recognized  as  largely  language  work  and 
new  terms  must  be  frankly  told  with  no  effort  to  develop  them.  The  develop- 
ing process  can  easily  be  overdone  and  much  time  wasted. 

The  arrangement  of  topics  found  in  any  recent  arithmetic  can  be  profit- 
ably followed,  but  care  must  be  taken  not  to  put  in  too  many  subdivisions. 
For  instance,  the  table  of  apothecaries'  weight  has  no  place  in  this  plan.  Troy 
weight  and  surveyor's  measure  should  also  be  omitted.  The  principle  of 
compound  or  denominate  nunil)crs  is  the  desideratum.  At  any  time  when  the 
individual  needs  any  of  the  technical  tables  he  can  look  them  up  just  as  he 
would  an  interest  table  or  a  logarithm  table  which  not  even  the  most  hide- 
bound arithmetician  woukl  memorize.  I1ie  following  practical  suggestion  as 
to  elimination  in  arithmetic  has  been  made  by  Dr.  Frank  M.  AIc]\Iurry. 

".Xpotliecaries"  weight,  Troy  weight,  examples  in  longitude  and  time,  ex- 
cept the  very  simplest  involving  the  15  degree  unit,  since  standard  time  makes 
others  unnecessary ;  the  furlong  in  linear  measure ;  the  rood  in  square  meas- 
ure ;  the  dram  and  quarter  in  avoirdupois  weight,  the  surveyor's  table,  the 
table  for  paper  folding;  all  proljlcms  in  reduction  ascending  or  descending 
which  involve  more  than  two  steps ;  the  greatest  common  di-.-isor  as  a  separ- 
ate j:opic,  not  practice  in  detecting  divisibility  by  2.  3.  5  and  10  all  common 
fractions,  except  those  of  a  very  low  denomination  and  customary  in  busi- 
ness ;  all  work  with  least  common  multiples,  except  of  such  very  common 
denominators  as  those  just  mentioned  ;  complex  and  compound  fractions  as 
separate  topics;  compound   proportion,  jicrccntage  as  a   separate  study   with 


•For  substance  of  this  paragraph  I  am  in  debted   to  Dean   Balliet,   N.    Y.   Uulv. 


4 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  59 

its  case3 ;  true  discount ;  most  problems  in  compound  interest ;  problems  in 
partial  payments,  except  those  of  the  very  simplest  kind ;  all  problems  involv- 
ing fractions  of  shares  in  commission  and  brokerage;  equation  of  payments;, 
partnership ;  cube  root ;  all  algebra,  except  such  simple  use  of  the  equation' 
as  is  helpful  in  arithmetic." 

A  fair  allotment  of  the  arithmetic  time  ought  to  be  devoted  daily  to  oral 
recitation  on  problems  and  abstract  work.  The  child  should  be  encouraged' 
to  do  as  much  work  as  possible  mentally.  Drill  on  the  four  fundamental 
operations  must  be  carried  through  to  the  end  of  the  course  for  no  part  of  the 
subject  is  so  important  nor  so  easily  forgotten. 

In  commercial  arithmetic,  which  includes  interest,  taxes,  stocks  and 
bonds,  insurance,  and  kindred  topics,  Dean  Balliet  of  New  York  University 
makes  the  very  wise  suggestion  that  the  emphasis  should  be  laid  more  on  the 
pupil's  practical  knowledge  of  the  topics  as  a  branch  of  political  economy  than 
as  a  subject  in  mathematics.  The  laws  of  values  in  stocks  and  bonds,  when 
one  recalls  the  millions  of  money  that  are  lost  through  unwise  investments, 
are  of  prime  importance.  The  reason  for  taxes  and  the  why  of  insurance  will 
be  of  more  value  to  the  child  than  the  mere  ability  to  compute  taxes  or  add 
up  his  insurance  premiums. 

GEOGRAPHY 

The  child  who  travels  gets  the  best  kind  of  an  introduction  to  geography. 
A  trip  to  some  point' of  interest  will  rouse  his  interest  in  the  map.  A  com- 
paratively short  journey  will  take  him  into  another  state,  after  which  he 
should  be  shown  the  map  of  it  as  well  as  that  of  his  own  state.  Collect  post- 
card pictures  for  him.  These  will  fix  places  in  his  mind  and  also  refresh  his 
memory.  Consult  the  map  on  all  occasions  when  locality  is  in  question,, 
whether  in  literature,  history,  current  news,  or  visits  to  friends,  and  trips  irt 
summer.  Collect  and  preserve  envelopes  from  other  cities.  The  postmarks 
on  these*  will  give  the  names  of  towns  which  can  be  visited  on  the  map  and  \n 
books  of  travel.  In  this  way  the  United  States  can  be  covered.  Follow  this 
with  a  dissected  map.  Landscape  features  that  have  not  been  seen  can  be 
studied  in  picture  with  a  stereoscope.  Show  him  the  thing  itself  as  soon  as 
possible,  however.  When  the  so-called  sailor  geography  of  the  United  States 
has  been  covered,  take  up  the  physical  features  and  show  how  they  were 
formed.  "Home  geography"  can  be  wisely  brought  in  here  as  it  is  needed. 
This  should  be  made  to  serve  as  a  help  to  the  regular  work,  however,  and 
should  in  no  case  become  an  end  in  itself.  The  work  in  nature  has  already 
brought  in  erosion  and  land  formation.  Trade  routes  and  the  location  of 
cities  may  now  be  presented.  Industries  will  follow  and  these  must  be  accom- 
panied by  products  and  pictures  showing  the  processes.  Type  forms,  as  of 
irrigation  in  the  valley  of  Great  Salt  Lake,  or  coal  mining  in  Scranton,  Pa., 
will  obviate  the  need  of  taking  up  these  topics  again  elsewhere.  Incidentally 
foreign  countries  will  have  been  brought  up,  but  systematic  study  of  them 
should  be  deferred  till  the  child  knows  his  own  land,  its  chief  physical  features, 
cities,  and  leading  industries  with  their  casual  relations. 

This  should  be  followed  up  by  a  briefer  study  of  the  continent  of  Europe, 


•6o  SCHOOL  WORK 

with  its  subdivisions  and  principal  races.  The  remaining  continents  with  their 
adjacent  islands  will  follow  in  due  order.  As  soon  as  the  United  States  has 
been  completed,  a  collection  of  postage  stamps  may  profitably  be  commenced. 
A  brief  account  of  each  country  represented  with  pictures  of  the  people  and 
their  ways  will  naturally  follow  with  interest  keyed  to  a  high  pitch.  A  num- 
ber of  definite  headings,  such  as  "What  are  the  chief  occupations  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Asia?"  "How  does  the  agriculture  of  Africa  compare  with  that  in  the 
western  states?"  will  serve  to  furnish  a  standard  of  desirable  material  and  the 
rest  may  be  discarded. 

All  through  this  work  the  child  must  patiently  follow  the  map  in  all  his 
reading  until  the  habit  of  picturing  localities  in  history  and  literature  is  defi- 
nitelv  fixed.  A  good  globe  should  be  at  hand  for  this  purpose.  Books  of 
travel  should  form  part  of  the  pupil's  reading. 

In  order  that  a  definite  plan  may  be  at  hand  after  the  study  of  the 
United  States  is  finished,  the  following  outline  is  offered.^ 

A 

South  America — Location,  surface  and  climate ;  leading  countries  and 
chief  cities ;  industries,  products  and  commerce ;  people. 

Canada,  Mexico,  Central  America,  and  West  Indies — Location  of  places 
associated  with  important  current  events  carried  along  through  the  course. 

B 

Europe — Location ;  surface  and  climate ;  leading  countries  and  chief 
cities ;  industries ;  products  and  commerce ;  people. 

C 
Review  of  th-e  United  States  and  its  dependencies. 

D 

Asia,  Africa,  Au.stralia  and  Island  Groups — Relations,  commercial  and 
political,  with  the  United  States  and  with  European  countries. — Location ; 
surface  and  elements,  climate;  leading  countries,  and  chief  cities:  industries, 
products,  and  commerce,  people. 

E 

Mathematical  and  ]ihysical  geography ---Review  of  political  and  commer- 
cial geography. 

ML'SIC  ' 

Music  appeals  to  the  youngest  child  of  impressionable  age.  It  not  only 
secures  universal  response,  but  it  is  the  most  universal  means  for  expressing 
emotion.     It  uplifts  the  child,   strengthens  his  higher   faculties  and   elevates 

'See  Appendix  Iv. 
'See    Appendix    Iw. 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  6i 

his  whole  nature.  Music  is  commonly  considered  an  accomplishment  of 
doubtful  utility.  This  is  a  grave  mistake.  By  its  means,  children  who  are 
properly  taught  it  have  been  rendered  more  efficient  in  school  work,  more 
docile  at  home,  more  hopeful  and  helpful  everywhere.  Children  often  find 
practising  the  greatest  drudgery.  Instead,  they  should  love  it.  The  child 
who  is  slowest  in  grasping  the  subject  needs  it  most.  The  tone  deaf  ears 
should  be  unstopped.  The  latent  love  of  music  smothered  by  rebuffs  and  dis- 
couragements should  be  fanned  into  flame.  All  should  be  inspired  to  claim 
their  birthright. 

RELIGIOUS   TRAINING 

Owing  to  the  varied  beliefs  which  present  themselves,  no  specific  direc- 
tions can  be  given  here.  In  general,  however,  the  truth,  which  is  almost 
axiomatic,  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  Bible  study  at  first  hand  is  vital.  Do 
not  be  content  with  the  often  expressed  notion  that  the  ethical  side  is  sufficient. 
The  present  generation  displays  an  ignorance  of  the  foundation  stone  of  our 
liberties,  which  is  at  least  alarming.  Lay  great  emphasis  on  a  good  knowledge 
of  the  content  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  add  only  that  in  theology,  of  whose 
certainty  and  verity  you  have  satisfied  yourself. 

The  age  at  which  the  different  branches  should  be  taken  up  has  been 
indicated,  subject  to  the  general  law  laid  down  that  the  child's  interests 
should  govern.  Literature  and  history  should  be  commenced  at  about  the 
age  of  three  in  oral  conversation.  He  can  be  taught  to  read  when  he  espe- 
cially desires  it.  Arithmetic  will  come  in  naturally  along  with  reading. 
Penmanship  can  be  profitably  postponed  till  the  child  really  feels  a  need  for 
it,  provided  that  he  has  a  typewriter  with  which  to  express  himself.  Formal 
geography  should  be  deferred  till  the  age  of  nine.  Drawing  may  be  begun 
at  five.  Manual  instruction  should  be  taken  up  as  early  as  the  age  of  six. 
Music  and  physical  training  may  be  started  from  the  fifth  to  the  eighth  year. 
Nature  study  will  be  taken  informally  at  the  earliest  springtime  walks  along 
the  seashore  or  in  the  country  and  may  receive  some  formal  attention  in  the 
fifth  year. 

The  constant  aim  in  following  this  course  is  to  study  the  interests  of  the 
pupil  and  keep  him  in  touch  with  the  subjects  thereby  indicated.  He  can  be 
led  and  his  interests  can  be  wisely  directed  so  that  they,  instead  of  being  idly 
dissipated  through  aimless  motor  impulses,  will  bring  about  his  positive  physi- 
cal and  intellectual  advancement.  Because  of  this  possibility,  it  is  distinctly  to 
the  advantage  of  the  child  to  be  under  the  tutelage  of  his  mother  if  she  is  well 
educated.  She,  better  than  anyone  else,  can  watch  his  intellectual  unfoldment 
and  minister  to  it.  The  incessant  questions  of  the  normal  child  should  be 
answered,  when  asked,  with  definite  information  and  never  the  vague  gener- 
ality of  "You  are  too  young  to  understand.  You  can  find  this  out  when  you 
are  older."  It  is  true  that  sometimes  the  questions  of  the  child  are  due  to  a 
passing  whim  rather  than  to  genuine  interest.  But  this  can  easily  be  tested 
when  the  time  for  answering  is  not  available  by  saying  to  him,  "If  you  really 
want  to  know  about  this,  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  tell  you  if  you  will  remind  me 
of  it  when  we  are  alone.    Just  now  there  is  not  time  to  explain  fully."  / 


62  SCHOOL  WORK 

The  course  of  study  given  in  the  preceding  pages  has  been  made  in  an 
■endeavor  to  indicate  the  general  principles  which  should  be  borne  in  mind 
when  presenting  the  several  topics  together  with  some  methods  that  have  been 
found  profitable. 

Lead  the  child  into  new  paths.  Waste  no  time  upon  the  old  and  well- 
known  topics.  Show  him  the  vast  realm  of  the  unknown  all  about  him  in 
science,  literature,  and  art  until  he  forms  the  habit  of  wide-open  eyes  that 
bring  him  into  intimate  association  with  the  great  in  heart  everywhere. 


APPENDIX  2 

THE    LITTLE    PEOPLE 

One  day,  before  the  Ice  Age,  thousands  of  years  ago,  the  sun's  rays  were 
beating  down  fiercely  on  a  frost-bound  cliff.  The  melting  snows  sent  little 
streams  trickling  down  like  tears  on  the  face  of  a  giant.  Some  of  the  \vater 
reached  the  glacier  below  and  found  its  way  to  the  streams  beneath  the  ice 
field.  Some  of  the  drops  were  caught  in  crevices  of  the  rock.  That  night 
they  froze  and  Jack  Frost,  using  them  as  powerful  wedges,  split  ofif  many 
pieces^of  the  clifT.  One  huge  fragment  clung  tightly  to  the  mother  rock.  "Do 
not  let  me  fall,  Alother,  dear!"  he  cried,  and  the  two  hung  firmly  to  each 
other.  But  the  Frost  King  was  too  strong  and  the  block  soon  followed  the 
others.  He  rolled  far  out  on  the  ice  beyond  the  edge  of  the  terminal  moraine, 
as  the  pile  of  loose  stones  at  the  clifif's  foot  is  called.  There  he  lay  dizzily 
wondering  what  had  happened. 

He  watched  other  pieces  fall  that  whole  day,  but  when  he  awoke  the 
following  morning  he  found  himself  carried  by  the  moving  glacier  some 
distance  away  from  his  old  clifT  home.  Each  hot  day,  too,  melted  the  ice 
around  him  leaving  a  tiny  pinnacle  which  at  last  gave  way  letting  him  down 
little  by  little  into  the  ice.  Finally  a  heavy  snow  fall  covered  him  completely. 
Not  long  afterward,  he  heard  the  ice  children  talk  about  their  work  of  grind- 
ing and  polishing.  He  did  not  connect  this  with  himself,  however,  till  he  fell 
through  a  hole  in  the  ice  and  a  big  crack  which  suddenly  opened  beneath  him 
down  to  the  glacier's  under  side.  There  he  was  rolled  over  and  over  with 
the  other  stones,  dropping  his  corners,  loose  particles,  and  sharp  edges.  The 
process  was  very  slow.  Sometimes  it  would  take  him  a  week  to  roll  partly 
over  and  the  pressure  of  the  ice  above  upon  the  rock  lioor  beneatii  was  so 
great  that  he  thought  he  would  be  crushed  to  powder.  But  he  was  made  of 
good  material  from  the  granite  ledges  of  the  far  north  and  he  could  endure 
polisliing.  Consequently,  week  after  week,  year  after  year,  the  ice  which 
constantly  fitted  itself  about  him  ground,  scoured,  and  finished  him  otY  till  he 
was  reduced  to  the  size  of  a  small  hen's  t^£[,. 

After  a  -luuidrcd  years  of  this  troublous  experience  the  pressure  suddenly 
relaxing,  he  tumbled  out  on  a  bed  of  sand  and  lay  blinking  at  the  sun  which 
he  had  not  seen  for  over  a  century.  How  soft  and  warm  his  bed  felt  as  he 
went  to  sleep!  He  was  quickly  awakened,  however,  by  the  rippling  waters 
which  tried  to  rouse  him  as  they  dashed  by,  telling  him  that  he  would  be  cov- 


IMPROVED  COURSE  OF  STUDY  63 

ered  up  if  he  lay  there.  But  he  was  too  tired  to  heed  or  else  he  did  not  believe 
them  because  after  the  first  rousing  which  they  gave,  he  slept  on  dreamlessly. 
The  sand  drifted  over  him  and  other  pebbles  were  dropped  into  his  bed. 
Slowly  a  great  weight  accumulated  and  gradually  the  earth's  crust  sank  until 
sand  and  pebbles  were  buried  under  tons  of  drift. 

We  know  but  little  of  what  happened  then.  The  great  furnaces  inside  the 
earth  burned  hotly  and  the  sand  was  somehow  changed.  Through  it  all,  the 
little  pebble  slept  unconsciously,  except  that  perhaps  he  shifted  restlessly,  as 
we  sometimes  do  on  hot  nights.  At  last,  however,  the  fire  and  the  great 
pressure  had  done  their  work,  and  the  sand  bed,  with  its  visitors,  had  become 
solid  rock,  holding  the  pebbles  in  a  grasp  second  only  to  that  of  the  Ice  King. 
Then  came  the  earthquake.  Suddenly,  without  warning,  the  rock  beds  were 
torn  asunder.  High  up  they  were  pushed,  showing  torn  and  flinty  edges  to 
the  air  in  great  mountain  piles,  exposed  to  storms  of  wind  and  rain  and  snow. 
Slowly  the  years  went  by.  The  rock  ledges  crumbled;  the  lofty  peaks  were 
ground  down.  The  mountain  torrents  carried  the  new-made  soil  to  lower 
levels,  gradually  making  places  for  future  meadows  and  flower  beds.  Our 
little  pebble  was  in  a  huge  jagged  rock  that  lay  on  an  open  hillside  in  eastern 
Pennsylvania.  Nearby,  trees  grew  into  forests.  Wild  animals  and  Indian 
children  played  among  them.  The  rock  was  a  favorite  resting-place  for  both 
papooses  and  cubs,  because  from  it  one  could  see  into  the  valley  below.  One 
day  a  hunter  passed  that  way,  and  others  followed  him.  The  Indians  and  the 
bears  fled  silently  westward.  Only  the  foxes  stayed,  for  they  were  wise  and 
had  dreams  of  chickens  and  turkeys.  The  rock  which  held  our  little  friend 
was  being  steadily  broken  down  by  frost  and  snow  and  rain,  till  at  last  he 
could  see  the  sun  again.  Then  a  farmer  came.  He  cut  down  some  trees  and 
built  them  into  a  cabin  near  the  rock.  His  children  played  where  formerly  the 
red  babies  and  the  wild  beasts  had  lived.  The  trees,  one  at  a  time,  fell  under 
the  woodman's  axe  while  roads,  fields  and  houses  took  their  places.  Visitors 
in  summer  found  the  cool  shade  and  distant  views  restful  and  inspiring.  Two 
students  came  by  One  of  them,  a  little  girl,  spied  the  pebble  peeping  out. 
Together  the  two  broke  it  loose  and  the  older  one  told  this  story. 

Bibliography. 

Advisable  Omissions  from  the  Course  of  Study  (Educational  Review), 

McMurry 

Applied  Psychology  (Educational  Publishing  Co.) McLellan 

Broader  Elementary  Education,  A.  (Hinds  &  Noble) Gordy 

Criticism  (Educational  Review,  Vol.  40) McMurry 

Day  With  the  New  Education,  The  (The  Chautauquan,  Vol.  30) Runyon 

Drawing  in  Primary  Schools  (Kellogg) Rooper 

Editorial,  An  (Education,  Vol.  23). 

Education  (Burt) Spencer 

Education,  History  of  (Lippincott) Kemp 

Education,  History  of  (Scribners') Davidson 

Education  of  the  Central  Nervous  System  (Macmillan) Halleck 

Educative  Process,  The  (Macmillan) Bagley 

Emile  (Appleton)  Rousseau 

Evano-eline  CHoue^hton  &  Mifflin) Lono-fellow 


04  SCHOOL  WORK 

Experiment  in  Education,  An  (American  Book  Co.) ^^er 

Experiment  in  Education,  An  (Popular  Science  Monthly) Jacobi 

Fairy  Tales  ( Button) Grimm 

Flower  Fables  (The  Alershon  Co.) Alcott 

General  :\Iethod  (Public  School  Pub.  Co.) McMurry . 

Geographic  Intiuences  on  American  History  (Ginn  &  Co.) Bridgham 

Hiawatha  (Houghton  ]\Iifflin) Longfellow 

How  I  Was  Educated  ( The  Forum.  \'ol.  i ) Barnard 

How  Shall  I  Educate  My  Boy?  (Harper's  Weekly,  Vol.  48) Thwing 

How  to  Tell  Stories  to  Children  (Houghton  Mifflin) Bryant 

Interest  in  its  Relation  to  Pedagogy  (Barnes) Ostermann 

Lectures  in  General  and  Special  Method  (Xew  York  University) Balliet 

Lessons  in  Physical  Geography  (American  Book  Co.) Dryer 

Little  Books  for  Little  People  (Button). 

Management  of  a  City  School,  The  (Macmillan) Perry 

Methods  in  History  (Ginn  &  Co.) Mace 

Midnight  Ride  of  Paul  Revere.  The  (Houghton  Mifflin) Longfellow 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  Autobiography  (Henry  Holt) Mill 

Mother  Goose  (Jamieson  Higgins  Co.). 

Philosophy  of  Education.  The  (Macmillan) Home 

Philosophy  of  Teaching  (Ginn  &  Co.) Tompkins 

Phonetic  Reading  (Popular  Science  Monthly) Fernald 

Physical  Geography  (Ginn  &  Co.) Bavis 

Promotion  of  Bright  and  Slow  Pupils  (Educational  Review) Bush 

Psycholog}'.  Introduction  to.  An  (Macmillan) Calkins 

Ps'ychoiog>'  ( Hinds  &  Noble) Gordy 

Psycholog}'   ( Appleton)    Herbart 

Psycholog>'  in  the  Schoolroom  ( Longmans) Bexter  and  Garlick 

School  and  Its  Life  (Silver  Burdett) Gilbert 

Stories  to  Tell  to  Children  (Houghton  Mifflin) Bryant 

Teaching  Children  to  Study  (Macmillan) Tones 

Teaching  of  Elementary  Mathematics,  The  (Macmillan) Smith 

Upton  Letters,  The  (Putnam's  Sons). 
Readers,  Cyr's  Graded  Art,  The  (Ginn  &  Co.). 
Readers,  Morse,  The  (Silver  Burdett). 
Reader.  Eugene  Field.  The  (Scribner's). 

Appendix  i,  Specl\l  Sources. 

a.  Condensed  from  Mary  Ailing  Aber,  An  Experiment  in  Education,  Popular 
Science  Monthly.  Vol.  40,  page.  521.  Cited  by  permission  of  B.  Appleton  &  Co., 
New  York. 

b.  Cited  from  Br.  Frank  M.  McMurry  in  Educational  Review.  \'ol.  40,  page 
489.  by  permission  of  the  publisher. 

c.  From  the  Upton  Letters  by  T.  B..  page  159,  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New 
York.  1895.    ^y  courtesy  of  the  publishers. 

d.  Quoted  from  Harper's  Weekly.  Vol.  48.  page  97,  by  permission  of  Harper 
&  Brothers.  New  York. 


IMPROVED  COURS']^  OF]  ^TVDY    '  65 

e.  See  Autobiography  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  published  by  Henry  Holt  &  Co., 
New  York.    Cited  by  permission  of  the  publishers. 

f.  The  Forum,  Vol.  i,  How  I  Was  Educated,  by  F.  A.  Barnard.  Cited  by 
permission  of  the  publishers. 

g-.  Henry  Winthrop  Hardon,  62  Wall  Street,  New  York, 
h.  Education,  Vol.  23,  page.  569.    Cited  by  permission  of  the  publishers.  The 
Palmer  Co.,  Boston,  Mass. 

i.  Dr.  Levi  Clark,  formerly  of  Dartmouth,  Mass.  By  courtesy  of  Edward 
Clark. 

j.  Material  furnished  mainly  by  Mrs.  George  Millard  Davison,  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y. 

1.  Popular  Science  Monthly,  Vol.  27,  pages  472  and  614,  An  Experiment  in 
Education,  by  Dr.  Mary-Putnam-Jacobi.  Cited  by  permission  of  D.  Appleton  & 
Co.,  New  York. 

m.  Chautauquan,  Vol.  30,  March,  1900,  A  Day  With  the  New  Education,  by 
Laura  L.  Runyon.    Cited  by  permission  of  the  publishers. 

n.  Harper's  Weekly,  Vol.  48,  page  96,  How  Shall  I  Educate  My  Boy?  by 
President  Charles  F.  Thwing.  Cited  by  permission  of  Harper  &  Brothers,  New 
York. 

o.  Educational  Review,  Vol.  19,  page  296,  Promotion  of  Bright  and  Slow 
Pupils  in  Santa  Barbara,  Cal.,  by  Caroline  F.  Bush.  Cited  by  permission  of  the 
publisher. 

p.  Condensed  from  a  study  of  the  topic  of  the  rapid  promotion  of  pupils 
made  in  Public  School  y2,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  by  George  Millard  Davison,  as  part 
of  course  P  32  in  the  Graduate  School  of  New  York  University,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Professor  James  E.  Lough,  Ph.D. 

q.  Popular  Science  Monthly,  Vol.  40,  pages  ^77  and  517,  An  Experiment 
m  Education,  by  Mary  Ailing  Aber.  Quoted  by  permission  of  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 
and  of  the  American  Book  Co. 

r.  An  Ideal  School,  by  Preston  W.  Search.    D.  Appleton  &  Co. 
•  s.  Drawing  in  Primary  Schools,  by  T.  G.  Rooper.    E.  L.  Kellogg  &  Co. 

t.  New  York  Course  of  Study,  Drawing  Syllabus,  page  5. 

u.  Arithmetic  Methods.  By  courtesy  of  Dean  T.  M.  Balliet,  New  York 
University,  New  York. 

V.  New  York  Course  of  Study,  Geography  Syllabus,  pages  11-14. 

w.  By  courtesy  of  Mrs.  Harvey  M.  Ferris,  294  State  Street,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y., 
whose  most  excellent  and  attractive  courses  in  music  for  children  are  doing  in- 
estimable good. 

X.  Teaching  Children  to  Study,  by  Olive  M.  Jones,  Principal  of  Public  School 
120,  Manhattan.    The  Macmillan  Co. 


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